World Cup beckons for SA
Banyana Banyana stand on the brink of another fantastic feat, with victory over Mali in the 2019 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (AWC) semifinals today in Accra sending Desiree Ellis’ troops to the 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup in France next year.
It would be the first time Banyana have ever qualified for a World Cup finals, and would put behind them the desperate disappointment of missing out in 2014, when a fourth-placed finish saw Vera Pauw’s side just miss out.
Desiree Ellis took over as head coach when Pauw left after the 2016 Rio Olympics, though it took an age for her to get the job on a permanent basis. And she has proved herself more than capable in Ghana thus far, masterminding an amazing win over Nigeria in Banyana’s first Group B match, and a 7-1 hammering of Equatorial Guinea meant a 1-1 draw in their last group game was enough for Banyana to win the group, and set up a potentially easier semifinal against Mali.
With Thembi Kgatlana in sparkling form, having picked up three successive Player-of-the-Match awards, and spearheading a brilliant generation of Banyana players, there is every chance that Ellis’ charges will complete the job today of reaching the World Cup. Mali, however, are not to be underestimated, after fine wins over Ghana and Algeria took them to the last four, at the expense of the slightly embarrassed hosts.
Hopefully Banyana can finish the job today, and not need another lifeline in the form of a third-place playoff, which will really set the nerves jangling.
While Banyana hope to make South Africa proud in the AWC, meanwhile, tomorrow, South Africa’s top flight men’s clubs begin their bids to dominate the continent, with Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates participating in the 2018/19 Caf Champions League and Kaizer Chiefs and Free State Stars taking part in the 2018/19 Confederation Cup.
The changed format of the competitions, that now run from November to May, should, in theory, help South African teams, as it runs in line with their Premiership season. Previously, teams had to battle with these competitions running over two seasons, especially if they made the group stages, which sometimes meant a damaging change of personnel in between campaigns.
This may have contributed to a relative lack of success in continental club football, with Orlando Pirates in 1995 and Mamelodi Sundowns in 2016 the only two SA teams to have won the Champions League, while Chiefs won the Nelson Mandela Cup, as it was known then, in 2001.
There have been a smattering of appearances in the semifinals and finals too, but there can be no more excuse from our teams for not doing better on the continent.
The draw for Pirates and Sundowns in the Champions League is fairly good too, giving them a great chance of at least making the group stages, while Chiefs have a nice path in the Confederation Cup as well, with only Free State Stars set to meet a seeded team before the group stages of either competition.
Stars are the one side who almost have a free pass in Africa this year, having surprised by winning the Nedbank Cup and with the coach who won that, Luc Eymael, already on the scrapheap.
With Chiefs, Sundowns and Pirates, as the three biggest clubs in the country, there is definitely an onus on them to carry the flag well. Sundowns and Pirates have certainly done that, to some extent, over the years, but Chiefs, their Mandela Cup success aside, have flattered to deceive, too often appearing not to take their task seriously enough.