Banyana Banyana captain Janine Van Wyk described Banyana’s qualification for the Olympics as a great way to make up for the failure to qualify for the World Cup.
|||Banyana Banyana captain Janine Van Wyk described Banyana’s qualification for the Olympics as a great way to make up for the failure to qualify for the World Cup and the best way to see how the squad has progressed.
Speaking after Sunday’s 1-0 defeat of Equatorial Guinea in Bata, Van Wyk, spoke of the disappointment of missing out on the global showpiece in Canada and the elation of making it to the Rio Games.
“Oh yes it does (erase the pain of missing out on the World Cup),” Van Wyk told Safa Media. “This is the next big event that we could have qualified for and we have done it.”
A goal just after the hour-mark by Jermaine Seoposenwe helped Banyana overcome an Equatorial Guinea outfit that they had previously played second fiddle to – Van Wyk and her teammates defying the odds to book a second successive Olym-pic participation after their debut in London 2012.
“In 2008 we played in the final of the African Women’s Championship (AWC) and we lost to them 3-1. We travelled to them in 2012 after beating Nigeria for the very first time and, understandably, our emotions were on a high after that achievement.
“We played Equatorial Guinea two days after and they beat us 4-0, and everyone was asking if we would ever beat them ... So, here we are, we proved everyone wrong. We were strong as a team and we believed in ourselves and we knew we were capable of beating them. We saw in the first leg that we could actually defeat them because we were on top and dominated play. That is exactly what we did in the second leg – we created some chances and could have scored early on. We went really strong at them, and we fought hard ... I am extremely proud of the team.”
Earlier this year, Banyana missed out on World Cup qualification by a whisker – some poor finishing ensuring they finished fourth at the AWC when third would have seen them qualify.
That near miss was the driving force behind their impeccable Olympics qualifying campaign that saw them go unbeaten against Botswana, Gabon, Kenya and Equatorial Guinea.
“This team has put in the time, hard work, effort and sacrifices to qualify for the Olympic Games. We really deserve this reward.
From day one when the coach started with us she said we want to get to the Olympic Games because we missed out on something big – the World Cup – so we also wanted to do it for her.”
Now that they have qualified, Banyana are eager to build on their experience from London.
“As a team we will show how much we have progressed since then. It will be interesting to see and compare the level that we are at competing against some of the best in the world. I believe South Africa has talent and can compete with international teams. We can’t wait to start preparations for Rio”. - The Star
from Soccer Soccer Extended RSS http://ift.tt/1PwzPMK
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire