The World Cup run for two West Hartford sisters is over. Allyson and Chantelle Swaby and their Jamaican team lost to Colombia today (1-0) in the round of 16.
The 43rd-ranked team advanced to the knockout round after an unexpected performance in the group stage. Jamaica's success can be attributed in part to a strong defense performance by Allyson and Chantelle Swaby against top-10 team France and Brazil. Allyson Swaby also scored the team’s only goal during the group stage, clinching a victory against Panama — the team’s first-ever World Cup match win.
The Swaby sisters began their soccer careers as children, under the supervision of their father.
“This started off in the backyard,” their father, Lennox Swaby, told the Associated Press. “They’re always together. I think that also plays a part in the way they’re playing for the country right now.”
Both Swaby sisters were courted by the U.S. National and Olympic Development teams at a young age.
“I still remember the first time that [Chantelle] played a ball,” Scott Ferguson, their high school coach, told the Associated Press. “It was just this beautiful kind of laser delivered ball right to the feet of someone about 40 yards away.”
Both sisters played throughout college and went on to play for both American and European professional soccer teams. Allyson Swaby spent part of this year loaned to Paris St. Germain, considered one of the best women’s soccer teams in the world.
Their father, Lennox Swaby, was born in Jamaica, giving the sisters the “clear connection” that FIFA requires for a player to join a given national team. The Swaby sisters were part of the team’s historic debut at the Women’s FIFA World Cup in 2019. The team failed to advance past the first stage after losing each of its matches, but qualified again for the 2023 World Cup.
Despite outperforming the Jamaica men’s national team, which has not qualified for the World Cup since 1998, the women’s team has struggled with underfunding and had to resort to crowdfunding its way to Australia in 2023.
The team then shattered expectations by making it past the group stage with an undefeated defense, which includes what coach Lorne Donaldson refers to as the "Double Swaby."
“There’s hardly words to explain,” their father, Lennox, told the Associated Press after the game. “I think they’re going to surprise the world.”
The team did just that by holding its lead through two ties against fifth-ranked France and eighth-ranked Brazil, and securing a spot in the knockout stage of the competition for the first time ever.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
