Banyana Banyana will look to continue riding the crest of the wave as they head into their Cosafa Women’s Championships semifinal against Uganda at Wolfson Stadium in KwaZakhele on Thursday afternoon.
The national side pulled off impressive performances in the initial stages, winning all three of their games to top Group A with nine points.
On Monday, Banyana qualified for the semis with a thumping 6-0 victory over Malawi in their final group match.
Along the way they have only conceded one goal in the tournament and that came from a Madagascar penalty in the opening fixture.
The team will be hoping for much of the same against Uganda on Thursday in order to progress to the final and defend their title. Banyana won the tournament last year, but also triumphed in 2002, 2006 and 2008.
With the event being hosted on South African soil there is even more pressure on the team to succeed.
However, Thursday’s fixture will not be an easy one for the national team as Uganda, who were invited as an East African guest nation, have also set their sights on going all the way.
The Crested Cranes were invited to the Southern African championship along with continental powerhouse Cameroon, who qualified for the semis as the best group stage runner-up at the tournament.
Looking at Thursday’s match against Uganda, Banyana coach Desiree Ellis said it is always good to play against teams that have a different formation and that play a different type of soccer.
“It important that we do everything here at Cosafa because this is also part of our preparations for Afcon. Playing Uganda will be a different game altogether to may be Zimbabwe and Zambia or even Cameroon.
“It will help us grow as a team. We will analyse them very well but we will work more on what we need to do.”
The coach said they have enough footage of their Uganda counterparts, but they will also concentrate on what they need to do as a team.
“Sometimes you analyse the opponent, but you don’t concentrate on your own team.
“We believe if we can concentrate on our team as well once we have analysed the opponents then we will get the results that we want,” the coach said.
After having given all her players in the camp a run during the group stages, Ellis said she would field her best 11 against Uganda on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Cameroon will face Group B winners Zambia in the other semifinal at Wolfson Stadium at 1pm.
Ahead of the tournament Uganda skipper Tracy Jones Akiror said the Cosafa Championship would give her team another chance to test themselves with the potential to play African Women’s Championship qualifiers South Africa, Zambia and Cameroon.
“We want to test ourselves with the best on the continent because we have great ambitions. We shall go there for the ultimate prize, not just for participation,” said Akiror...