Former captain of the Sasol-sponsored Banyana Banyana, Janine van Wyk, has described the farewell matches of Noko Matlou and Nompumelelo Nyandeni as the “end of an era.”
The retired defender hung up her boots last year after reaching the magical 185 caps – making her the most capped player on the continent – both male and female, breaking a long-standing record by Egyptian Ahmed Hassan.
Long-serving stalwarts Matlou and Nyandeni have been called up into the Banyana Banyana squad that will face the Scorchers of Malawi in two friendly international matches scheduled for Saturday, 5 April and Tuesday, 8 March 2025 at the UJ Soccer Stadium in Soweto.
Currently based in Spain where she runs out for CP Cacereño Femenino in the second division league, Matlou was last in the South African Senior Women’s National team in April last year during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games qualifiers. She has been handed a call-up to round off her Banyana Banyana career and remains the second most capped player on 173 appearances.
Nyandeni has had to wait for six years to reach her 150th cap and has been recalled to also bring the curtain down on a stellar national team career.
She was last with the team in 2019 as a standby player shortly before the start of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.
The 38-year-old Nyandeni made her national team debut in 2002, followed by Van Wyk three years later (2005) while the 40-year-old Matlou first donned the Banyana Banyana jersey in 2006.
Van Wyk spoke to CentreCircle.online about the duo, about young goalkeeper Casey Gordon and about the dramatic Hollywoodbets Super League clash against a vibrant University of Fort Hare recently.
Noko and Nompumelelo final national team games
Absolutely buzzing for them and delighted to see Mpumi back since 2019 and getting her 150th cap. Finally, it’s happening! A legend that needs to be celebrated, it’s such a big milestone both her and Noko, they have given their all to this game and served the national team for many years, so of course they need to be celebrated. I’m ecstatic for both of them and I can’t wait to see them play in future once again and perhaps one last time in the green and gold jersey representing their country.
End of an era…
Yeah, definitely end of an era the new generation is coming up and the only thing we can do is sit back and be proud of ourselves for paving the way for the next generation to come through. We went through some difficult years of trying to get woman’s football on the radar in South Africa and now there’s so many opportunities for young girls to play, but we can say we’ve played a role in paving the way for the next generation.
Young goalkeeper Casey Gordon at Banyana Banyana
We are ecstatic for Casey to be called up to the South African Senior Women National team, she showcased herself at junior level, she’s showcased herself at Hollywoodbets. She’s a shot stopper, she’s a dreamer and is hungry to succeed and you can see it at the training field, you can also see it when she’s playing and I’m sure with some time she will be the nation’s number one.
Casey Gordon getting her first start in the Hollywoodbets Super League
As young as she is, she’s a very matured player and she understands her role and understands what we expect of her. We don’t have to tell her that we have faith in her because we brought her up as a second choice for a reason, because she’s capable to step into place when she’s called upon and I think she’s done exceptionally well. She made some brilliant saves today (vs Fort Hare), saved the team in the first half. Yeah, there are some moments that she could have done a little bit better especially in the first goal that we conceded but then again it’s inexperience in that role, it’s your first game, you’re under pressure, sometimes your decisions aren’t made in the moment that you want to make and unfortunately conceded the two goals but definitely outperformed herself today.
Dramatic end to the clash against Fort Hare
Very exciting match right from the start, played beautiful football and I thought we would have at least got one or two goals the way we were penetrating. The only thing that was really missing is finishing the ball in the back of the net, and then lapse of concentration allowed the opponent to get back into their rhythm of play, allowed them to get confidence and put us a little bit on the back foot with their kind of pressure and their high press that we didn’t want them to. But in football you can’t always have 100% concentration, and those things happen. So, come out second-half and I think the girls did really well, created some opportunities, but it was quite an even game compared to the first half that we feel we dominated. I think after conceding the first goal it’s difficult to get your full concentration back, and then conceded the second one, which was also from a mistake that we made, caught the keeper out of position and we have to learn from those things going forward. But I just have to talk about the character that the girls showed, they didn’t give up, they didn’t drop their heads, they fought right until the last minute and managed to get two beautiful goals. We have really good headers in the box and managed to get at the end of it, Boitumelo (Rasehlo) scored in our first game and again in this game, vital moment for us and I just have to commend the girls for their hard work and fighting to the end, and we are you happy with the one point.
Any improvement from your side from the last two games?
Yeah, definitely we’ve been working really hard on keeping possession of the ball, movement off the ball but you have to take things step by step. Every single game is an opportunity for you to learn where your weaknesses lie and you need to try and rectify those things at training and I can see some improvements especially on our attacking style, but defensively we are not in that concrete block and we give the opponents too much space to play and we don’t shift quick enough over to where the ball is, that is where we can get caught but as I say it’s step by step improvements and I’m happy with the progress that we’ve been making.
By Matlhomola Morake
