The South Africa female national team, known as the Bayana Bayana will be making their seventh straight appearance at the African Women Nations’ Cup, with high hopes of qualifying to the next Women World Cup in France.
Bayana Bayana, formed in 1993 is currently ranked 51st by the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA), have been four times runners-up in the CAF Women’s Championship.
Coach Desiree Ellis’ team would be coming into the competition as one of the longest running qualifying countries on the continent, having hosted the tournament in 2000 and 2010 anmd that makes them of the experienced sides in the competition.
With high hopes of qualifying for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, captain Janine Van Wyk and the rest of the team would be wrapping up their international friendly game with the Black Queens of Ghana at the Accra Sports Stadium on 11th November, 2018 to complete their preparations for the competition.
According to Coach Ellis, Ghana’s friendly would help test his team’s preparedness for the upcoming tournament.
“To play the host country in Ghana is another step to check our readiness for the tournament, getting used to the conditions as well as playing a top team like them would give us another different challenge and prepare us for the competition.
“We would get to experience and the first-hand the atmosphere, which would almost be like what we would go through when the tournament starts” he added.
Having beaten Lesotho by 6:0 in the build up to the qualifiers, Bayana Bayana would be starting their AFCON 2018 campaign in Group B, with defending champions Nigeria on 18th November 2018 in Cape Coast, as they seek to make it to the FIFA Womens World Cup in 2019.
Bayana Bayana would be wrapping up their Group B games with Kenya and Zambia respectively.
