Swaby sisters relishing in World Cup dream

REIMS, France:

For 20-year-old Chantelle Swaby, younger sister of Reggae Girls stalwart Allyson Swaby, playing in the FIFA Women's World Cup with the AS Roma defender is an experience she will never forget.

The younger Swaby, like her sister, played the full 90 minutes in Jamaica's 3-0 loss to Brazil on Sunday in their opening game of the FIFA Women's World Cup in Grenoble, France, with coach Hue Menzies singling her out for special praise after the match.

"It was pretty nerve-wracking in the beginning walking out and seeing all the fans, but once the game started, it was just another game and I felt a lot better," Swaby recalled.

"I am somewhat happy with my performance. I think I did alright for my first time with playing at the World Cup, the atmosphere and playing against such a great team, but I think some of my weaknesses, I wasn't playing as fast as I should. At this level, these girls are going to be on your back as soon as you get the ball so just having that awareness is important. I look forward to doing better in the next game," she added.

The Rutgers University midfielder, who was playing her 11th game for Jamaica, said she was thrilled to share the experience with her sister, who she considers a major source of inspiration and motivation.

ROLE MODEL

"It's always great to have her (Allyson) behind my back. She is really straight-forward so it's really good to have somebody like that behind you telling you what to do, where to go and so on. It makes the game so much easier for everyone," she said. "She is 18 months older than me so we have always been close. We played high school together, some club football as well but we didn't really think we would play together again after we finished high school, so having her here is really important. She is obviously a role model to me, so I think just having my sister on the team is really great."

Jamaica's next game will be against Italy tomorrow at the Stade Auguste-Delaune and Swaby says she is excited about the contest, and is hoping to help the Reggae Girlz to a more positive result.

"We struggled a bit in the Scotland (friendly) game and we did take into account everything that we needed to work on in the time we had been training after that game. We have adjusted well (after Brazil) so we just need to make the adjustments for the next game," Swaby said. "I am really excited for the Italy game. Of course my sister plays there currently so she is able to tell us from experience how they play, so that is really good information to have in the back of our minds."