Scoring directly from a corner kick has happened many times in football. Still, it is kind of a rarity compared to the other parts of the field from which one can find the target.

Truth be told, many of those kinds of goals are thought to be fortuitous, or in the Jamaican vernacular, “buck ups”. But don’t tell that to Marlo Sweatman as she may take offence, for the Reggae Girlz midfielder’s low, right-footed corner kick from Chile’s left-side was not only deliberate, but proved a golden strike, befuddling the outstanding Christiane Endler at her near post.

The ninth-minute goal gave Jamaica a 1-0 win over their South American counterparts in Thursday night’s friendly international at National Stadium.

Sweatman shares her decision to go directly at goal, instead of the typical lofted ball which would target teammates converging in the area.

“With situation and opportunity given at that the near post, which was open, I tried to aim it towards that area,” she said. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Sweatman, 24, told the Jamaica Observer that cheekiness of the goal aside, that it proved decisive in giving her team victory was more important.

“It’s a great feeling to score, and even a better feeling when it’s a goal that makes a difference to help the team win.

“I would say this was my most important goal for Jamaica, and definitely the funniest one, because it’s not very common to score off a corner kick — and the best part is to have the awesome home crowd cheering behind it all,” said the Virginia, USA, native.

Sweatman, a cool-headed central midfielder and a deadball specialist, said while she revels in the goal, she would have hoped to have impacted the game even more.

“I definitely would like to have been a bit more involved on the possession side of the game. I thought I did fine, but have some areas and parts of my personal game I’m going to work on, based on this performance,” she noted.

In the contest, Jamaica were clearly the team with the offensive edge, threatening throughout mainly with the attacking trio of Khadija “Bunny” Shaw, Jody Brown and senior team debutante Cheyna Matthews.

Sweatman, who recently moved to Hungarian premiership side Szent Mihaly FC, noted that were the team able to convert more of its chances, the Girlz’ dominance of their opponents would be more pronounced.

“I think we could have created some more chances or capitalised on a few more to really change the game,” she stated.

Notwithstanding, Sweatman believes the overall team performance deserves a passing grade.

“I thought as a team we did well. Obviously, a few more chances capitalised and created would had been good and a bit more possession would also have helped,” she opined.

On the input of newcomers to the fold, Sweatman was generally satisfied.

“We have some new faces and we are still looking to gel with each other, which will come over time as we continue to play together.

“I thought all the players did really well on their debuts. For example, Cheyna Matthews did really well out wide, I thought, and Laura (Jackson) was with me in the midfield and she’s a very technical and tactically sound player, so I enjoyed playing by her side,” she said.

The Girlz, who are using the two matches against Chile as preparation for their historic participation in the Fifa Women’s World Cup in France, will close out the series tomorrow in Montego Bay.

And according to the gospel of Marlo Sweatman, fans can expect another positive display, banking on the knocking of heads between the technical staff and players.

“I know our coaching staff is going to do a great job breaking down the game and giving us team information of what was good and what we need to do better for Sunday. Our approach, I believe, is going to just be to build off the positives from this game tonight,” she disclosed.

Life at her new club in Hungary, Sweatman shares, is going according to script.

“I’ve been doing well in Hungary… the team was really happy for me to go to camp (in Jamaica) and they are all supporting from Hungary. When I get back, we have our first official league match next Saturday,” she concluded.

Jamaica will contest Group C of the Fifa Women’s World Cup against Brazil, Australia and Italy.