Watching the team that is now officially the best on the African continent, Banyana Banyana, in the African Women’s Cup of Nations (Wafcon) in the last few weeks, two key elements of football struck me. The key to modern football is technical superiority and a ball-playing number six.
Come to think of it, it shouldn’t be surprising that Banyana proved to be the best on the continent at this year’s tournament after falling at the final hurdle as many as five times.
They proved that they’re the best this year before Saturday night’s final against Morocco hosts.
All three group stage wins – over champions Nigeria, Burundi and Botswana – showed just how good they are.
Their technical quality shone brightly in those games, although I also feel they could have still done better in all three matches.
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But I couldn’t help but notice how well they executed the basics of the football game – the first touch, pass accuracy, the vision to play through the defence and shooting at goal.
That also exposed individual brilliance, with the likes of Noxolo Cesane, Refiloe Jane and Jermaine Seoposenwe being among the standout attacking players, while the central defensive pair of Noko Matlou and Bambanani Mbane gave very little away.
It is Jane that I wish to expand on because I found it interesting that she played pretty deep for an attack-minded and offensive player of her quality.
Entrusted with the captain’s armband instead of regular captain Janine van Wyk, Jane played the number six role with the degree of finesse that we’ve come to appreciate in modern number sixes.
A thorough ball-player who mastered the role of a ‘deep-lying playmaker’, as was once described by Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena.
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Having her in that vital role gave South Africa an extra attacking player instead of a traditional ‘destroyer’, who wouldn’t have been influential in a team like Banyana, given their propensity to keep the ball well and dictate terms.
Her intricate passing and profound off-the-ball movements were a pleasure to watch.
But overall, the final of this year’s tournament also highlighted an essential aspect of any successful team – good ball retention.
It was right-back Lebogang Ramalepe whose loose pass was intercepted in her own team’s half, that led to Morocco pulling one back about ten minutes before the end of regulation time.
That didn’t go down well with me, not when I already believed that losing possession cheaply is very often costly in the game of football.
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