Linda eager for more

Tshepo Ntsoelengoe

Banyana Banyana’s hat-trick heroine Linda Motlhalo (above) will be looking to get her name on the scoresheet again when they take on Uganda in the semifinal of the Cosafa Women’s Championships at Wolfson Stadium in Port Elizabeth today.

The Houston Dash midfielder got her first hat-trick for the senior national women’s team during the side’s 6-0 win over Malawi in their last group stages game.

“The aim is to score as many goals as we can. When I got the opportunity to score three goals, I just made sure I put them into the net. But I couldn’t have managed to score all those goals without the help of my team-mates,” said the midfielder.

“We are starting to play to our best strength looking at the way we started. It wasn’t a good start at all and we all wanted to make it a point that we pick up. I am just glad that now it shows that we have really stepped up and our previous game says a lot.”

Banyana are now two games away from defending the Cosafa Cup with Uganda standing in their way of reaching the final.

Motlhalo believes the team is in the right state of mind to win the competition and everyone in the team is eager to lift the trophy, especially with the tournament being hosted on home soil.

“Everyone has been working really hard during the training sessions and you could see that the spirit of the team is very high. We all want to win the trophy and keep it in the country. We know that it is not going to be easy, but we are up for a challenge and ready to work hard on the pitch,” she added.