WE NEED TO GO PRO!

Banyana goalie Kaylin Swart reflects on the magic and misery of the world cup and her dream of playing football fulltime 

- JANICE BECKETT-MSIZA

IT’S a few weeks since the triumph and tragedy of the Fifa Women’s World Cup and she’s happy to be home in her cosy apartment in Johannesburg.

The world of top-flight football isn’t easy, Kaylin Swart says. Do well and you’re everyone’s hero. When something happens and the result doesn’t

go your way, it’s a different story. And that was exactly the case for goal-keeper Kaylin when the ire of soccer fans descended on her after she let through a shot fired by the Netherlands’ Lineth Beerensteyn in the second half of Ban yana Banyana’s knockout round of 16 match. The South Africans, who’d carried the hopes of millions on their shoulders, were out, losing 2-0 to the Dutch – and Kaylin bore the brunt of the disappointment.

Coach Desiree Ellis leapt to her goalie’s defence. “I hope people remember her for how well she played and not that one incident,” she said.

That game spelt the end of Banyana’s dream run at the world cup. They were the underdogs who did the impossible by going further than any SA team has done at the tournament, and everyone from the president to the person on the street was behind them.

Kaylin (28) smiles wryly. “A goalkeeper can sometimes be the villain,” she says. “But we can also be the hero.”

It’s midday when she welcomes us to the one-bedroom apartment in Linbro Park, Sandton, she shares with Sadie Niekerk (28), her partner of four years.

She’s taking a break this week before returning to her job as sports coach at the Saheti School, a Greek school in Bedfordview.