Former Banyana Banyana captain Janine van Wyk says she felt like she had played 90 minutes herself after her first official match as a coach this past weekend.
The former national team defender led JVW to a hard-fought and priceless three points in a 3-2 win.
The Blue Diamonds faced Ezemvelo Ladies, newcomers to the Hollywoodbets Super League, who made them sweat for maximum points.
Goals from Gabriela Salgado, Boitumelo Rasehlo and Nompumelelo Nyandeni were enough to give Van Wyk her first win in her first match in the Hollywoodbets Super League as a coach.
The Bedfordview-based is top of the table, level on three points with the University of Johannesburg who defeated new kids on the block 1-0 in the only other encounter in the league.
JVW next face reigning league champions Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies on Sunday, 9 March.
Van Wyk spoke to CentreCircle.online
How were the nerves after your first match as coach?
Yeah, it felt like I had played a 90-minute game myself with all the nerves and the stress levels. First game in, three points, very excited but a lot of work still to be done in terms of conditioning, our fitness levels. The challenge we face is we train on a really narrow and small pitch and coming out here and you feel like you’re playing on two fields at once, so the girls fought really hard, it was a well fought victory but again a lot to improve on going forward.
You wanted this first game out of the way, now it’s gone, but must be relieved that you got three points in the process?
Definitely a relief getting three points and definitely it wasn’t easy but yes now that sets the tone for us for the season, and we can only improve from here.
You had said you wanted to impose your style, your philosophy – from what you saw in the 90 minutes do you think it’s coming?
It is coming out, the style is coming out, it’s just a few little things in certain areas and departments on the field that we need to improve on, especially in our defensive structure. I think if you look at the two goals that the opponent scored it was from counter attacks and that’s something that we knew that they were really good at. They really have pacey players and it’s about how quick we can we get behind the ball in an organized structure so that’s something that we’ll definitely look to work on but looking at our attacking phases we’ve created some really good moments and getting in playing into the thirds and getting into the final third so that is coming along nicely it’s just a matter of polishing up what is necessary.
The newcomers almost shocked you with their play – is that how it felt on the bench?
Look, I’ll tell you what, they are really strong contenders for this season regardless of the fact that they are newcomers to the league. They are a team that can play, build up well from the back into the thirds. They also create chances and they’re really good in their counterattack football, they’ll catch many teams on their counterattack with their pacey players, so credit to them for putting us under a lot of pressure and welcome to the season.
You took a chance with one your newly-promoted players from the Sasol League, Reitumetse Mosoue – your impressions on her?
I think Reitumetse held her own, she did really well, very composed player in the midfield but I think towards the end ran out of steam a little bit and we had to bring in some fresh legs but overall performance I think she’s done extremely well, breaking down play for us as the two central midfielders should do and releasing balls forward, so she can only improve as well.
You have a big assignment this weekend against the reigning champions – Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies.
We have Sundowns coming up, a big game, always a big game with two top teams but for us it’s just about detailed performance, looking at our recent performance and see where we can improve on and like I said defensive structure is going to be really key in our next game against a really strong opponent that likes to push numbers forward and if we can get that right then it will be a good game for us.
By Matlhomola Morake
