South Africans wishing to watch Banyana Banyana in action will have to budget for late nights and early mornings.
Desiree Ellis’ charges have been drawn in Group G at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 tournament along with Sweden, Italy and Argentina.
They will play their group stage matches in New Zealand, alternating between the Wellington Regional Stadium and the Dunedin Stadium.
For their first three games, they will be based in New Zealand – which has a time difference of +11 hours with South Africa.
Banyana Banyana will play two games at one venue – the Wellington Regional Stadium.
The first will be on Sunday, 23 July 2023 against Sweden with a 17h00 kickoff local time (04h00 SA time), as well as the last group stages clash against Italy on Wednesday, 2 August at 19h00 local time (06h00 SA time).
In between the two fixtures, they will fly for just under an hour and a half to face Argentina at the Dunedin Stadium on Friday, 28 July 2023.
The match will start at 12h00 local time (23h00 SA time).
The round of 16 matches for this group will take place in Australia.
Should South Africa come out top of their pack, they will move to Melbourne to face whoever is second in Group E – which has the defending champions USA, Vietnam, the Netherlands and the yet-to-be-determined Group A Play-off winner.
A second place finish for Banyana Banyana in their group will see them travel to Sydney to take on Group E winners.
Co-hosts New Zealand will play the first match of the 32-nation tournament when they welcome Norway to Eden Park on Thursday, 20 July 2023 while fellow co-hosts Australia will take on debutants the Republic of Ireland at the Sydney Football Stadium in Group B on the same day. (There is a two-hour difference between New Zealand and Australia).
Stadium Australia will host the final on Sunday, 20 August 2023.
FULL BANYANA BANYANA WORLD CUP MATCH GROUP STAGES FIXTURES:
South Africa vs Sweden
Sunday, 23 July 2023
Wellington Regional Stadium
WELLINGTON/TE WANGANUI-A-TARA
New Zealand
17h00 local time (04h00 SA Time)
Argentina vs South Africa
Friday, 28 July 2023
Dunedin Stadium
DUNEDIN/OTEPOTI
New Zealand
12h00 local time (23h00 SA Time)
South Africa vs Italy
Wednesday, 2 August 2023
Wellington Regional Stadium
WELLINGTON/TE WANGANUI-A-TARA
New Zealand
19h00 local time (06h00 SA Time)
The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 full match schedule is available for download
Wellington Stadium:
Gross capacity: 39,000:
The stadium is a multi-purpose facility, though used mainly for sporting events. It is the home of the Wellington Lions Mitre 10 Cup rugby team and the Hurricanes Super Rugby team. The stadium also hosted the Wellington Sevens, one of the events that was part of the annual World Rugby Sevens Series for national rugby sevens teams. Sky Stadium regularly serves as a home venue for All Blacks rugby matches.
Sky Stadium is also the home venue for A-League team Wellington Phoenix FC, the stadium often referred to as “The Ring of Fire” by Phoenix supporters. It also serves as a major home venue for the New Zealand national football team (the All Whites), notably hosting the home leg of their 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Bahrain.
During the summer the stadium generally hosts international and occasionally domestic limited overs cricket, with the home team being the New Zealand Black Caps for the international contests and Wellington Firebirds for the domestic competition.
The stadium has also been used for rugby league matches, including national team fixtures and New Zealand Warriors away fixtures. The St Kilda Football Club, an Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League (AFL), played home games on Anzac Day at the venue from 2013-15.
Off-field facilities built into the stadium also included the New Zealand Institute of Sport, and a campus for the Wellington School of Cricket, run by the Wellington Cricket Association.(Wikipedia)
Dunedin Stadium
The Dunedin Stadium (also known as the Forsyth Barr Stadium) is a multi-purpose stadium in Dunedin, New Zealand. At various stages of development it was also known as Dunedin Stadium or Awatea Street Stadium, or its non-commercial official name during the 2011 Rugby World Cup and 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup, Otago Stadium. The fully covered stadium is also known colloquially as ‘The Glasshouse’ due to its resemblance to a horticultural hothouse.
The stadium was opened by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key on 5 August 2011, replacing Carisbrook as the home stadium of the Highlanders team in Super Rugby and the Otago Rugby Football Union team in the domestic Mitre 10 Cup. The stadium hosted four matches of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, and has hosted major music tours, starting in November 2011 with Elton John. The venue will host multiple matches for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. (Wikipedia)
By Matlhomola Morake
