The
South African Senior Women’s National Team (Banyana Banyana) will be looking to
leave the Olympic Games on a high note, when they take the challenge to World
Cup champions Japan in their final Group F fixture. The match will be played on
Tuesday, 31 July 2012 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
Kickoff
is at 14h30 (15h30 SA time).
Despite
defeats to Sweden and Canada, captain Amanda Dlamini’s team will leave the
world’s greatest sports showpiece richer in football experience. This could
prove to be of major value as they prepare to put in a bid to lift the CAF
African Women Championship 2012 title in Equatorial Guinea in October this
year.
The
results in the first two matches mean Banyana Banyana will not progress to the
next round.
But
the sports world will remember the team for the superb strike from 45 metres
out by forward Portia Modise which resulted in South Africa’s historic first
goal in Olympic Games women’s football history. This was in Banyana Banyana’s
4-1 loss to Sweden on Wednesday, 25 July 2012.
Japan,
ranked No 3 in the world, go into the match against South Africa at the back of
Group F outings which saw them record a 2-1 win over Canada and a goalless draw
against Sweden.
“We
are looking forward to the match against Japan, as our styles are similar in
that they like to keep and play the ball on the ground and so do we. We had
hoped to do well in our opening two matches to stand any chance of proceeding
to the next round, but it was not to be and I would like to applaud the whole
team for giving their all. We have one match remaining in the competition and
we are confident we can come with a positive result even though we know it
won’t be easy,” said Dlamini.
“On
behalf of Banyana Banyana, I would like to thank SASCOC, SAFA and our loyal
sponsor Sasol, for all the support that they have given to our team and it was a
privilege to be a part of Team SA at the London Olympics. We have learnt so
much from these two games and we hope they will put us in good stead when we
challenge for the AWC title later this year.”
