The Art of Keeping

An interview with goalkeeper Karen Bardsley, 26, the California-born fine art graduate whose strong Sky Blue season in the WPS ended when she broke her clavicle in training the day before the 2010 All-Star game, diving to cut out a driven cross. Cleared to run at four weeks and expecting to dive again by late October, she is back in the England squad and eyeing Germany 2011, having previously broken her leg playing for Cal State Fullerton in 2003. Bardsley describes competing for a starting shirt with team-mates she gets on with, watching the Ramona Bachmann sending-off incident with disbelief, and the prospect of facing the United States. She names Peter Schmeichel her goalkeeping hero, threw javelin at university, keeps four or five pairs of gloves, carries a sketchbook everywhere, and sums up her ambition as turning silver to gold.