Ntuthuko Maphumulo soccer
Banyana Banyana top scorer Jo-Anne “Shibobo” Solomon, credited with 19 goals, promises local soccer lovers that “the title will remain here”, when the African Women’s Football Championships kick off in Vosloorus on Saturday.
The early rounds will be played at Vosloorus and the Makhulong stadium in Tembisa, with all later matches at Vosloorus, culminating in the final on November 25. Eight women’s national teams – Nigeria, Ghana, Runion, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Cameroon, Uganda and South Africa will be contesting the prestigious trophy.
Nigeria will be defending the title they won two years ago and hoping to restore some national pride after both their men’s and women’s teams failed at the Olympics and watching their senior men’s team defeated in front of their home crowd in the African Nations cup.
Cameroon, on the other hand, will be looking for an unusual hat-trick with the women’s side hoping to be crowned African champions after the Indomitable Lions (the national men’s team) won both the African Cup of Nations and Olympic gold this year.
Cameroon media liaison officer Claude de Diguela was cagey on his team’s chances, saying: “It is very difficult to say whether we are going to win the cup because we are not well prepared, but have a surprise up our sleeves.”
A lack of international matches this year – the last one was a friendly against Holland in January – makes South African manager Fran Hilton-Smith rate Banyana’s chances of winning the cup just 50/50. “We’ve worked hard on our skills and hope to do well,” she says, relieved that the hosts have been drawn in the easier of the two groups, Group A, alongside Uganda, Zimbabwe and Runion.
Group B is the “group of death”, with Nigeria, 1998 runners-up Cameroon, Ghana and Morocco. Their games will be held in Makhulong stadium in Tembisa. The first match in Group B pits Nigeria against Ghana on Sunday.
National Under-23 coach Shakes Mashaba has been roped into the Banyana set-up as a technical advisor. He and Hilton-Smith will guide the squad during the cup, from the first match against Runion on Saturday.
The South African team was dealt a blow when attacking middfielder Khabo Zitha was injured during a friendly match against Zebra Force on Sunday. She is to be replaced by Anna Monate.
The Banyana Banyana squad held one of their training camps with the Bafana Bafana team at the FNB stadium on Tuesday morning. The Banyana team was very happy to play with some of their soccer heroes and some of them took the opportunity of having their picture taken with the Pirates captain Thabo Mngomeni.
“It was a huge boost for the girls and it motivated them to want to have the cup stay at home,” says Hilton-Smith, “but the team was disappointed that they did not meet the man with the magic – Nelson Mandela.”
The organisers hope the tournament will be a great spectacle.
Attendance at all of the matches, including the final, will all be free and Banyana’s games will be broadcast on SABC3.