Zebras warn Banyana as history beckons
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday April 8, 2016 14:24
The home team aims to maintain their unbeaten streak at the venue as they are 180 minutes away from historic qualification and coach Gaolethoo ‘Ronaldo’ Nkutlwisang is sending warning signals to her opponent.
“The time is now; the morale in the camp is very high. Our players believe that this is our time. We know that they are a strong team, but we are ready,” Nkutlwisang told Mmegi Sport yesterday. Though the team has been in camp for three weeks, Nkutlwisang decried not playing an international friendly match before the game and as a result they were forced to settle for a preparatory match with the national Under-20 side. “It was on our training plan to have friendly matches before the game. We tried Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Namibia, but all were unavailable at the time. We could not just fold our arms hence why we played the Under-20 boys,” Ronaldo said.
Banyana, on the other hand, will look to continue their dominance over Botswana and to qualify for all the major tournaments as they have secured a berth in this year’s Olympic Games. The team made a trip to West Africa on Easter holidays to play friendly matches with the host country, Cameroon. They won the first game 2-0 on Good Friday and played to a 2-2 draw on Easter Monday.
“Our travel to West Africa has helped us with preparation for Botswana because we really want to qualify for the AWCN and make the nation proud. All these matches that we are playing are part of the programme to prepare for the bigger stage, the Rio Olympic Games,” Banyana officials are quoted in South African publication, Kick-Off. The team has shown their stern intentions to win the clash as they arrived in the country on Tuesday, three days before the match.
On form Township Rollers’ striker, Refilwe Tholakele will lead the local girls’ frontline. Her partnership with veteran striker Thuto Ramafifi has been fruitful as the duo has tucked in five of the 10 goals scored in the preliminary round matches against Mauritius.
Skipper Janine van Wyk will lead an unyielding Banyana squad that has the experienced Noko Matlou, Refiloe Jane and Amanda Dlamini.