In the last three qualifiers the Sasol-sponsored Banyana Banyana played away first and managed to deliver.
For the fourth time in succession, the African Champions are on the road again, this time they visit Nigeria in the first leg of the final round of the Olympic Games – taking on perhaps tougher opponents in a tie that has a lot of history behind it.
The South Africans departed for Abuja on Sunday morning (31 March 2024) to continue preparations for a clash scheduled for Friday, 5 April at the Moshood Abiola Stadium.
Four days later, the two nations will be back on the field for the return fixture which will take place at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria on Tuesday, 9 April.
Prior to this upcoming two-legged tie in West Africa, they travelled to DR Congo in October last year where they registered a 1-all draw in the first leg second round of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games qualifying clash, before winning 2-0 at home (3-1 aggregate).
Next up they qualified for the 2024 CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations after defeating Burkina Faso 3-1 on aggregate in November/December following a 1-all stalemate away in the first leg and emerged victorious 2-0 in the reverse fixture.
Just last month they were on the road to Tanzania for the first leg of the third round of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games qualifiers, returning with a 3-0 advantage and finished off the job on home soil with a 1-0 success, for a 4-0 aggregate win.
Matches between Banyana Banyana and Nigeria are more often than not closely contested affairs, and after years of suffering defeat at the hands of their West African opponents, South Africa has recently gained the upper hand – winning three of the last four contests.
Prior to departure, JVW goalkeeper Kaylin Swart addressed the media about the upcoming match, and touched on, among others, the return of captain Refiloe Jane, playing away first and about the difficulties ahead.
BANYANA BANYANA’S QUALIFICATION ROAD:
2024 Paris Women’s Olympic Qualifiers:
October 2023
Dr Congo 1 – 1 South Africa (First Leg)
South Africa 2 – 0 DR Congo (Home)
CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers:
November/December 2023
Burkina Faso 1 – 1 South Africa (Away)
South Africa 2 – 0 Burkina Faso (Home)
2024 Paris Women’s Olympic Qualifiers:
February 2024
Tanzania 0 – 3 South Africa (Away)
South Africa 1 – 0 Tanzania (Home)
2024 Paris Women’s Olympic Qualifiers:
April 2024
Nigeria vs South Africa (Away)
South Africa vs Nigeria (Home)
Tough fixture coming up against Nigeria, without doubt
Nigeria is always a tough place to go to, but I mean we’ve had some success in that country and it’s going to be another tough battle, but I think we are very ready for it. Obviously, we are in season now and I think we’ve all really improved a lot, our teams (Hollywoodbets Super League) have improved, the level of individuality has improved, and I think the coaches are really excited. We are all in pretty high spirits, we prepared well within ourselves, and I think it’s going to be very important for us to gel once again. We know Nigeria is a tough opponent and we don’t have to elaborate on that because we know what a powerhouse they are in Africa, but we have shown our strengths before, and I think this encounter is no different, now we just got to tick the boxes and hopefully come out with a win away.
Playing away first, good or bad?
It’s always best to play away first, the last qualifiers vs DR Congo and Tanzania, were not easy, but we managed to get a couple of goals away and obviously coming home helped us a lot with confidence. I think playing away first alleviates a lot more pressure from us just because coming home we know that we will have our people behind us, to push us through, but I think it’s just a lot easier to play away first than to play home. If the chips are down when we play away we just know that when we come home we have to give 150% and playing in Nigeria is going to be a tough encounter, and it’s going to come down to margins and how much we want to give and how much we put in to get the result. But like I said, I have so much faith in my team, and I know that we are going to come out on top.
It’s hard-fought encounters between the two nations, especially lately. Who has the edge?
Nigeria’s got brilliant individual players and their physicality is something that you cannot argue, but I think we are so much better with the ball, we are possession-based. The physicality is definitely something that puts them head of us, but I think we’re a better ball-playing team and it’s going to come down to mentality because the battles on the field are going to show for themselves. Obviously, they have big name players, their players are famous in Africa, around the world so that will also play in their favour – but like I said, it’s going to come down to 11v11 and whoever wants it more is going to win.
There’s always hostility playing away, how will you deal with that?
I think the experience that we’ve gained over the last couple months, over the last year, is massive. It’s so important for us to be playing in big stadiums with hostile crowds and because the ooohs and aaaahs from the away fans are obviously not the best but I think if we can just use that as fuel for us to conquer whatever happens on the field because at the end of the day it goes down to what we are capable of doing and how badly we want it. It’s going to be tough, Nigeria has got a big following, they pack stadiums when they play at home, so I think we just have to deal with the hostility that we’re going to face. And we are pretty experienced to deal with that because we played in Morocco where we had almost 80-90 thousand fans gunning against us but yet we still prevailed, we came out on top. I think also the World Cup has given us a lot of motivation to say that no matter how many people are behind us or against us we can always fight and we’ve showed day in day out in every game we’ve played that we are superior because no matter what, even if our backs are against the wall, we are still going to come out and fight regardless. I think we are ready, and I have so much faith in my team and there’s so much faith and belief within us. Whatever we’ve experienced in the past will definitely help us in this coming game.
In April you faced Tanzania during pre-season, now Nigeria is next, and the league is in full swing, how important is match fitness?
Now it’s down to maintaining the momentum that we’ve built over the last five games in the league. I’m certain everyone’s seen how much the league has improved, there’s a lot of goals but there’s no 10-0 or 5-0 anymore, but the intensity has really risen within the Hollywoodbets Super League. I’m sure the coaches are excited and us as players we are happy because we want to test ourselves amongst the best and I think it’s (the league) grown a lot. Obviously, the last camp we were still in pre-season so it was a little bit tough for us especially our bodies, but now the league is in full swing, so it’s just building up on that and hopefully we can just keep improving and making sure that we at our best come Friday the 5th of April.
The return of captain Refiloe Jane since the World Cup…
Refiloe is one of the leaders, she’s the glue to a lot of us, especially on the field and yes, her presence is definitely missed. We are so excited to have her back, me personally because I have such a good relationship with her. I think just her coming back is definitely a boost to the coaches and also us as players because she has such an important role in midfield, and she conducts whatever happens on the field and I think it’s very exciting and we just can’t wait to have her back.
(The overseas-based players will arrive in Abuja on different days as they were concluding their league matches at their respective clubs).
By Matlhomola Morake
