The South African Women’s National team are in their final stage of preparations for the 2024 Olympic Games Qualifiers as they gear up to do battle with Nigeria in Abuja on Friday evening. Banyana Banyana beat DR Congo 3-1 on aggregate in the CAF Women’s Olympic Qualifiers second round. In their third round of the qualifying tournament, the reigning African Champions defeated Tanzania both home and away with an aggregate of 4-0.
In an interview conducted by the national team during the camp, Banyana Banyana's captain, Refiloe Jane, discussed her triumphant return to the squad following an injury setback. “It feels good to be back with the team, it's been a long journey of recovery but all that is behind me now. I am more focused on gelling back again with the team, making sure that the experience that I gained over the years I'm able to share with the other players.”
“Now we've got a mandate to qualify for the Olympics in Paris later this year, I think that's what we are focusing on and that's what we are working on as a team. We know the qualities that we have amongst ourselves, we will try to put that together and make sure that we succeed.”
In the last five matches played out between the two nations, the Super Falcons hold an upper hand with three wins, while South Africa have won on two occasions. Banyana Banyana were the last team to clinch victory when the two sides met back on July 4, 2022 in the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations.
Jane provided insights into the nature of Nigeria as opponents, shedding light on the two teams’ previous battles and the determination to secure victory. “Even though we've played Nigeria a couple of times and recently we’ve won against them. We still need to give them the respect that they deserve, they're still the undisputed African Champs in theory, looking at how many times they’ve ruled Africa so we cannot take that for granted or take it away from them.”
“We still respect them but also we look at the quality that we have in our team, the strides that we’ve made in the team [and] look at the past results, not so long ago we’ve beaten them twice. We’ve played a couple of draws against them so we've seen that with the journey that we've been on, it's an upward trajectory so we are very happy with our performances. We also know they've been doing well in the previous games that they played [and] they did well also in the World Cup. It's going to be a totally different ball game, this is like the final of the finals. We will try and make sure that we get a good result again and make sure that we go to represent Africa in the Olympics.”
In addition to discussing the team's preparedness and strategic approach, Jane passionately shared insights into what fans can anticipate from this electrifying encounter, she said: “Playing Nigeria it’s never easy, you look at the history between the two teams, whether in the men’s games or female games, playing against Nigeria is always war so I think for us we need to stay focused on what the mandate is. When we get onto the pitch we’re going to need one another more than anything so I think playing well in motivating one another as a team is going to be of high high importance, I think putting away the noise outside will be key and just focusing on what we have to do on the field.
Jane emphasised the advantage gained from arriving in Nigeria ahead of time, allowing ample opportunity for the squad to acclimatise to the conditions. “I think firstly we need to give credit to the association, SASOL and everyone behind the team in making sure that we get to Nigeria prior to the initial start of the FIFA calendar I think acclimatising has been key for us, we’re able to adjust to the weather it hasn't been easy, the humidity and the heat and having different players coming from all over the the world and trying to gel in hasn't been easy but I think at this point we've adjusted, we’ve acclimatised and we are ready to to go and play.
The return leg of this fixture will be played on April 5 in South Africa (Loftus Versfeld Stadium), kick off is at 19H30 (CAT)
Comments
Post a Comment