South Africa women secure Zambia and Botswana football friendlies

SA women secure friendlies against Zambia, Botswana

JOHANNESBURG, April 6 (ANA) – Hosts South Africa have managed to secure friendlies against Zambia and Botswana over the next week, in preparation for their women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers later this year.

SA will take on Zambia on Saturday and Botswana on April 13. Both matches will start at 3pm and will be played at Bidvest Stadium in Milpark, Johannesburg.

To prepare for the encounters, Banyana Banyana – as the SA women’s team are known – arrived in Johannesburg on Monday, their second training camp of the year, following the first they held two weeks ago.

Banyana coach Desiree Ellis has called up 26 players – but she has had to exclude eight overseas-based players due to Covid-19 restrictions.

“We have a program for the year that we need to stick to, to ensure that we are ready for our qualifiers once the draw comes out,” said Ellis.

“The past year has been very difficult for us with no football permitted to play, but we need to look forward and ensure that we reach our goals.”

“We are still faced with challenges due to the pandemic but we cannot let that demoralise us. We had called up some of our playing plying their trade abroad, but they could not be released for these friendly matches due to Covid-19 restrictions. We have to soldier on and perhaps start planning around a few locally based players to stabilise the team.”

Only Thembi Kgatlana, Noko Matlou and Amanda Mthandi (all based in Spain) will be available for the clashes. – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman