The senior women’s national soccer team, Banyana Banyana, have celebrated Women’s Month in style by qualifying for the fifth African Women’s Championship to be held in Nigeria in September this year.
Banyana Banyana on Friday beat Tanzania 4-0 in a return leg, having beaten them 3-0 at home two weeks ago. Memory Makhanya scored the first goal in the 23rd minute followed by Disebo Mametja in the 31st minute, Nompumelelo Nyandeni in the 53rd minute and Veronica Phewa in the 82nd minute.
Banyana won on aggregate 7-0.
”We are all ecstatic with the result. We are especially proud of the way our players focused for the full 90 minutes. Unlike when we played Tanzania at home two weeks ago, where we played in patches and allowed them room to play, this time we played consistently well throughout the game,” said Fran Hilton-Smith, Banyana Banyana team manager.
”What is important is that we had four different goal scorers, which shows the versatility of our players and that we are not dependent on one player to score goals for us,” she said.
Now that Banyana have qualified for Nigeria, the management team will plan their strategy to qualify for the 2007 Fifa World Cup.
The two matches against Tanzania have given them a better perspective of their strengths and areas that need improvement.
”For now, we are going to celebrate our hard-earned win against Tanzania and enjoy Women’s Month,” added Hilton-Smith.
Raymond Hack, South African Football Association CEO, said: ”We salute the ladies for their great achievement of qualifying for the fifth African Women’s Championship. Their win comes at an opportune time when we celebrate the achievements of women this month. We are now going to work harder to ensure that the team goes beyond the African Championships to the Fifa World Cup.
”We would like to thank everybody who worked hard to ensure that the team qualified. It was a team effort from the players, technical staff, administrators, media and the fans that supported the team in the first leg in Katlehong.
”We hope the support will continue throughout all our national teams, starting with the Under-20 team which faces Zimbabwe in Katlehong this Sunday.”
Banyana Banyana are due to return home on Sunday evening. — Sapa