Chile matches a good learning curve

Chile’s physical challenge has helped Banyana Banyana as the squad prepare for the upcoming Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWC), says captain Janine van Wyk.

Banyana spent eight days in South America and played two friendly matches against Los Chicas de Rojo as part of their preparations for the continental tournament, set to kick off in November in Ghana.

Banyana lost the first game 2-1 and held the hosts to a 2-2 draw in the second game.

“It was a good challenge for us, we played against a physical team and that is what we will be facing in the AWC, tough and physical opponents. That is what Chile were in the past two games we played. We have learned a lot and going into the AWC, we only have a few things to touch on and we will be ready to compete,” said the skipper.

Van Wyk was disappointed with the officiating in the last friendly and believes the senior national women’s team deserved to win. However, she reckons the team will benefit from such experiences and gave credit to the new players in the team.

“We were hard done by in this game (second friendly), I think we should have walked away with a win, the girls came out really strong, scoring the first goal, and we played extremely well compared to the first game. We were hard done by the officiating but it is part of the game, we will grow and learn from it,” she added.

“The team is really growing and the new names that came on did extremely well, added a lot of value into the team and made a difference, credit to everyone.”

The team arrived back in the country yesterday morning and will continue with the preparations for the tournament.

However, the side are yet to learn who they will be facing at the 11th AWC, with the draw set to be conducted on October 21 in Ghana’s capital Accra.