Hosts Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies are eager to conclude the group stages of the CAF Women’s Champions League COSAFA qualifier with an unbeaten run. But standing in their way is Namibia’s Beauties FC. After losing their first match, the newcomers bounced back with a convincing 3-0 victory over Ntopwa FC of Malawi, who have since been knocked out of the competition.
Banyana ba Style have six points from the first two fixtures and need only a draw to confirm their semi-final spot in the regional competition. But head coach Godfrey Sapula wants to hear nothing about playing for a draw, saying they are working towards grabbing maximum points.
“We are a club with big ambitions, and every game we play to win, there’s no friendly for us and there’s no you probably have qualified and all that – hence we brought players that we think are capable to play any type of a match. We are going all out to try and make sure that we win this match against Beauties FC. As I said we’re not going to underestimate any opponent, we also use this game to improve where we need improvement and build on moving forward. But we are going all out to give a 100 percent to make sure we win a football match, that’s the standard,” said Sapula.
The Brazilians notched their second win of the tournament on Sunday (24 August) with a laboured 1-0 triumph over a tough Zesco Ndola Girls from Zambia. Boitumelo Rabale struck in the 19th minute of the game.
“It’s actually what we had anticipated – a difficult match against Zesco. Even though we controlled the match we need to be a little more clinical when we get the chances. Yes, we scored a beautiful goal but if you think about it, we also created a few chances in the first half. And with a little composure and being more clinical, we would be leading 2-0 maybe a half time,” added Sapula.
While he is happy that chances are created and the team in winning, the Mamelodi Sundowns legend is confident they will start converting those chances.
“What I am satisfied about is that we keep creating chances but if we were not creating chances, I was going to be worried. I am hoping that something has to give – we can’t be creating chances game in game out and our conversion ratio is very low. We are hoping that that can improve, we’re not really pleased with one goal but sometimes in tournaments like these you have to do to what you can to win. But we want to improve our game not just to win the football match,” added Sapula.
Banyana ba Style lead Group A with six points, followed by the pair of Zesco and Beauties FC who are tied on three points, while Ntopwa is yet to collect points after back-to-back defeats.
Sundowns Ladies and Beauties FC go into battle on Tuesday (26 August) at 3pm in the last round robin stages match. In an earlier kickoff, Ntopwa will face off with Zesco at 12h00.
The hosts will be without their new forward, Ronnel Donnelly who was stretchered off minutes after coming on in the second half. It is not clear what the extent of the injury is.
By Matlhomola Morake
