Banyana are deserving of big crowds at stadium

BANYANA Banyana have been in town for the past week and the buzz surrounding the national women’s team can certainly be felt.

Since returning from Ghana late last year when Banyana not only finished runners-up in the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations, but more memorably qualified for the Fifa World Cup in France later this year, there has been a great deal of positive energy flowing around these incredible women.

This increased exponentially when coach Desiree Ellis and striker Thembi Kgatlana were honoured at the CAF awards ceremony for their performances over the past year.

The fact that Ellis, homegrown in Salt River, and Kgatlana, a former student at the University of the Western Cape, are local women fuels the excitement even further.

Banyana also showed on Saturday in the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Challenge match at the iconic Cape Stadium against the Netherlands that they are not preparing to make up the numbers when they head to France in June.

They showed innovation; flair and plenty of pace that certainly troubled the more physical European champions.

The festivities in the Mother City are not over just yet either. Banyana have one further game against more quality opposition, Sweden, on Tuesday at 7pm.

It is the second time the Swedes have headed to Cape Town to face Banyana in less than a year and are certainly big fans of preparing for major tournaments with Table Mountain looking over their shoulders.

The South African Football Association has opened the doors for both Banyana matches with reports indicating that more than 27000 tickets were collected for the Netherlands match last Saturday.

Although there was still a very strong crowd in excess of 15 000 people that came on Saturday, showing once again that Cape Town is indeed the sporting Mecca of Mzansi, Banyana are certainly deserving of a much-bigger crowd this Tuesday night.

It could be the last time Cape Town gets to see Banyana before they embark on their maiden World Cup journey, so get out your vuvuzelas and yellow jerseys and head to Cape Town Stadium.