No backing down for Van Wyk
JANINE van Wyk has a number of titles. She is the Banyana Banyana captain and the most capped South African footballer in national team colours, with 131 caps and counting. She is also a club owner, having established JVW FC in 2014. The club campaigns in the Sasol League.
You can add Banyana history documenter to that list. Her left arm is both the canvas and museum for the team’s limited success in international football. When they qualified for the Olympics for the first time, she obtained a tattoo of the Olympic rings and the map of Africa.
To celebrate the side qualifying for their second successive appearance at the Games, she added a tattoo of the statue of Christ the Redeemer with a rosary dangling on top of it.
It’s an appropriate image for Banyana, who will have giants towering over them in Rio de Janeiro, where they will need divine intervention to make a mark.
Van Wyk and her team will be taking on Sweden and China in Rio before travelling to Manaus to face the hosts Brazil in their last Group E match.
The top two teams from each of the three groups will advance to the knockout stage along with the two best thirdplaced sides.
Banyana’s recent performance in a friendly match against the No 1 ranked USA has Van Wyk believing they can hold their own because they won’t be star-struck.
“We didn’t get intimidated by the Hope Solos and Carli Lloyds who were standing next to us in the tunnel,” Van Wyk said. “We focused on the game and wanted to do well as a team, which is what we did.
“The one thing that pulled us through is everyone gave 100 percent effort. If we carry this spirit going to Rio, there will be some upsets. Team work can beat anything, even if that’s the world’s best. Our game is more organised. We are not 100 percent ready yet. There are some things that we need to organise but by the time the Olympics start we will be ready.”
Those things include working on their attack. Banyana couldn’t score against Netherlands in two friendlies, just like they couldn’t score against the US. Coach Vera Pauw will be very aware of that.
The friendly against New Zealand in Brazil, six days before they take on Sweden, will be a good place to start showing how they have improved in that department.
Banyana have improved tactically from the team they were in London. But they will still be looked at as the ideal team against which to pick up three points. That doesn’t concern Van Wyk. Instead it drives her and her teammates.
“We have nothing to lose,” she said. “Every opponent that we play against is ranked higher than us. All the pressure will be on them to do well. We just have to go out there and show our talent. We can get a good result from that.”
With no mention of the Zika virus by any Banyana officials at the Olympic team announcement on Thursday, Van Wyk is wary of the threat that the virus poses but says she won’t be distracted by it, writes Dominique De Gouveia.
“We have been aware of the Zika virus that’s going around. There wasn’t really any discussion in the team of how we are going to deal with it,” she said.
“All we know is that we are going to try and focus more on the playing field, focus on what we are there for. But we do know that there will be people there who will take care of us should there be any illnesses that would happen.”
South African golfers LeeAnn Pace and Branden Grace have both opted to skip the Games out of fear of the virus.