Bafana Bafana defeated Botswana 2-1 to win the plate final in the COSAFA Cup at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium in Durban.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s national women’s football team are gearing up to take on Zambia in the semi-final of the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) in Morocco.
The youthful new-look Bafana Bafana team held their own against their neighbours in their final match of the tournament.
Antonio van Wyk found the back of the net, off a deflection to put them in front in the first half.
Selaelo Rasebotja netted their second goal late in the second half to seal victory — despite a consolation goal from their opponents in the dying minutes — to record a fifth place finish overall.
AWCON CAMPAIGN
After securing their tickets to next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, with a win over Tunisia at the AWCON on Thursday night. Banyana Banyana are back on the training pitch, fine-tuning their game plans ahead of their semi-final clash against Zambia in Casablanca tomorrow night.
“We know that the semi-finals is also an important game and the objective now is to win and make it to the final. I would say there is much pressure on us we definitely know what we want as a team”, says midfielder Thalea Smidt.
Being clinical with their finishing has largely been the focus for the South Africans.
“The past few sessions even before the Tunisia game we have been working on our final third- that’s the area that we really need to improve. We have been trying the combinations for us to score if we can convert the chances we create that will take the pressure off us. The last game we created more chances and it looked a bit difficult at the end because the opposition was coming at us. That’s what happens if you create chances and don’t score”,says assistant coach Thinasonke Mbuli.
Kick-off against the Zambians is at 7pm.
🎙Quick chat with Banyana Banyana Defender Bambanani Mbane at our training session this evening as the team continues with preparations for the WAFCON semi-final clash against Zambia 🇿🇲 on Monday.#TotalEnergiesWAFCON2022 #LiveTheImpossible pic.twitter.com/G8QYWIJ0E8
— Banyana_Banyana (@Banyana_Banyana) July 16, 2022
