Banyana Banyana’s Noko Matlou is considering her options after her club SD Eibar Feminino was relegated from the Spanish Premier Division.
While the 2008 African Women’s Football of the Year has put in some decent performances in recent times, which has seen her being selected into the Team of the Week on numerous occasions – things have not been going well for the side for long periods.
“To be honest I am enjoying my time here and the football is great, but it is the results that are giving us sleepless nights. Every match we play has become a final as we are fighting relegation. This puts us under tremendous pressure as the league is now coming to the end. But we will continue to battle it out and see where it leads it us,” said the confident Limpopo-born defender a few weeks ago before relegation became a reality.
The pressure has finally told and they now have to face life in the Segundo Division Pro (First Division) of the La Liga Women.
In their penultimate fixture last weekend, they lost 3-1 to Thembi Kgatlana’s Atletico Madrid, with the Banyana Banyana striker netting the opening goal for the team from the capital.
SD Eibar bid the elite women’s league in Spain goodbye in style with a dominant come-back-from-behind 5-1 win over Valencia on Sunday (15 May 2022) in their final match of the season.
After 30 matches, they have only managed seven wins – lost 21 and drew two, collecting 23 points in the process.
Last season they finished in 14th place.
They will be joined in the lower league by Rayo Vallecano who were able to master only two victories the entire season.
CentreCircle.online spoke to Matlou after news of their relegation was confirmed.
CC: It’s been a tough season for your side in Spain, how would you describe it from a personal level?
NM: It has been a tough season for my team. I think we did well in the first round but things were different in the closing half of the season mainly due to the fact that some players were just recovering from injuries and their fitness levels were not 100%. Unfortunately, it was a wrong time to go through such because every team fight for all points in second round, and when we had all our players back it was too late, much of the damage had been done already. When you are playing teams that are on your level you have to collect points, because if you don’t then you are in deep trouble – and that is how we find ourselves here.
CC: From the club’s point of view, where did it go wrong?
NM: Like I said, I think our challenge started when key players got serious injuries and they were out for a long time. This forced us to use second team players that didn’t have experience – and that cost us a lot of points.
CC: You had high hopes at the beginning of the season, how does it feel like to be relegated?
NM: Indeed, I mean no player wants to face the prospects of relegation so I was very optimistic when the season started, mainly because of the way we finished last season – in position 14. But sadly things did not go our way as the season progressed, and I can’t help but feel sad to see the team relegated.
CC: When you learned you were relegated, what was the first thing on your mind?
NM: Look, first of all, because of how they season was going, we could tell what was going to happen if things did not change. We knew what we had to do but everything was just not coming together. So when we played the match that confirmed our relegation, it was a difficult one as we were under a lot of pressure. At the final whistle I was very unhappy but unfortunately there was nothing that could be done. I then changed my mindset and vowed to go out there and do the best I can in what remained of the season – you never know who could be watching.
CC: What next for you? Are you staying with the club or looking elsewhere?
NM: For now I haven’t really put a thought to that – all I need is to rest after a long and difficult season. At the moment I am not certain whether I am staying or not. I will most likely have an answer in the next few weeks.
CC: Back home, your former team First Touch is not doing well in the Hollywoodbets Super League, what advice can you give them?
NM: I think they need to work harder because the league is growing every year and players are improving every season, in fact all the teams are signing good players and improving – so they have dig deep if they want to stay in the elite women’s league as we are all aware that this is the promotion and relegation season, so there is no room for error or taking things easy. They should start making and seeing the changes now, and not wait for later as might make it even harder to stay in the league and that is not good news for our Province.
CC: On national team matters, Banyana Banyana are up against serial arch-rivals Nigeria, Burundi and neighbours Botswana in the AWCON in Morocco, your thoughts?
NM: Ha ha ha, yeah, Nigeria again, repeat of 2018! This is not easy group by any stretch of imagination. We have faced Nigeria on numerous occasions and it is always a tough battle against them – what makes it even challenging is that we play them in the opening game of the tournament, and how well we do in that game will surely set the tone for the rest of the competition. As for Botswana, we have played them a few times and I don’t think anyone has forgotten how they knocked us out of Tokyo Olympics qualifiers, so we can’t take them lightly and their football has grown over the years. We don’t much about Burundi, but I am confident closer to the tournament we will have more information and be able to prepare well for them. Having said that, this is a very interesting group, and makes everything tricky because this is also used for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup qualification.
CC: What is Banyana Banyana’s our realistic chance in Morocco – especially now that there are 12 teams instead of eight like in the previous edition?
NM: As I said, it’s not going to be easy since the tournament has expanded to 12 teams, which implies that even though the chances of going to Australia and New Zealand could be bigger, at the same time they could be minimal as more work needs to be done to get to the very top. I think if we just do our homework thoroughly and work hard, anything is possible.
By Matlhomola Morake
