Zambia loss was an eye opener for Banyana, says Van Wyk

Banyana Banyana defender Janine van Wyk believes the loss to Zambia gave them an idea what to work on ahead of their Caf Women’s Africa Cup of Nations last round qualifiers clash with Algeria at home on Friday. 

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Banyana lost 3-0 to the Copper Queens last weekend in Lusaka.

The clash was a preparation match for the Afcon qualifier against Algeria.

“The result is not what we wanted in order for us to move forward with confidence. It’s also an eye opener for all us knowing that we are not at the level e need to be yet. It is the beginning of the year, but we know that we have an important match against Algeria coming up. So, it is good that this game was just a warm-up match for us and we need to put some dots on the eye going forward and knowing what we need to fix in terms of our errors,” said the Banyana and JVW FC defender. 

“But, overall I think the team really pushed, it just wasn’t our day in the office. But we know we have a week to prepare for the most important one for us. The coach has brought in a couple of new faces, two players making their debut which is fantastic and I think they did really well. The team is getting stronger and stronger, it just a matter of the coach finding her balance in the squad. But it’s good to play such friendlies.”

With some of the key players missing during the Zambia match,particularly the overseas based players, the likes of Refiloe Jane of AC Milan in Italy, Thembi Kgatlana of Atletico Madrid in Spain, Linda Motlhalo of Swedish side Djurgardens IF, are all expected to join the team in camp this week.