The South African women’s senior national team, Banyana Banyana, has departed for Libreville, to take on The Panthers of Gabon in an Olympic qualifier match.
The first leg of the clash is scheduled for Saturday, May 23, at 15:30, at Stade Augustin Monedan de Sibang, in Liberville Gabon.
The Sasol sponsored Banyana Banyana team held their last training session at AW Muller Stadium at the University of Johannesburg prior to their departure.
Banyana Banyana will be looking to go past Gabon in the bid to progress to the next round of the qualifiers, where they will face the winner of the match between Botswana and Kenya.
In the meantime, Banyana Banyana will be without their star player, Portia Modise, who has announced her retirement from international soccer on Tuesday, May 19. She had amassed 100 international goals, the most in Africa.
Asa Phillistus Rabalao, University of North West goalkeeper, has been called in while USA based Roxanne Barker was not released by her club.
“We have been preparing for the match accordingly and all the players are hyped-up for the match against Gabon,” said Sasol Banyana Banyana mentor Vera Pauw. Pauw’s charges will go into the match with little information on The Panthers of Gabon, as the two nations have never played against each other before. “We have been trying to get information on Gabon, but it has been hard. All we were able to find out is that they last played an international match in 2010, one against Ivory Coast. Therefore we had to find out the playing style of football in the country as our starting point,” Pauw said.
Captain Janine Van Wyk believes that the team has what it takes to book one of the only two spots available for African teams at the Rio 2016 Olympics. “Obviously our main objective is to qualify for the Olympics, the last time we made it was in 2012 and we believe we can replicate that,” said Van Wyk.
