Banyana defeat Namibia to book spot in the final |

Banyana Banyana have advanced to the final of the 2022 COSAFA Women’s Championship after defeating neighbours Namibia 1-0 in the semis-finals at Isaac Wolfson Stadium on Friday afternoon.

The victory saw Simphiwe Dludlu’s charges increase their chances to crowned the regional tournament’s champions.

As a result, South Africa will face Zambia in the final on Sunday.

Banyana should have won the showpiece by a higher margin, given the number of clear-cut opportunities they gave away in the final third.

The University of the Western Cape rising star Fikile Magama walked away with her first Player of the Match accolade after stellar performance on the day.

Banyama seem to have done their homework as instructed by their coach since their first game of the competition against Angola, whom they crashed 3-0.

DLUDLU’S COMMENTS ON FIRST GAME…

“I think I need to commend SAFA for making sure that there’s a women’s league that takes place week in and week out because these players didn’t have no time to give them tactics and all of that. I’m really thankful to their coaches cause they have given me players that are match fit and coachable as that’s the most important thing.

“But it’s still going to be hard for us going forward because we have set the bar that this is exactly how we want to play and we will take it one country at a time and keep it simple for ourselves because these are young players that are below the age of 25.

“There’s a 16-year-olds that have come to the field as we just want to give them a chance to play and express themselves,” said coach Dludlu in a post-match against Angola.

“Before the game, I told them please don’t look at the number, don’t look at the face, just look at the colour of your socks and t-shirt, you will find that is your teammate. As I said, I’m happy they are a coachable bunch of players that understand their assignment and that we just need to keep it simple.

“We want to make sure that we represent the same brand of football that coach Desiree if she was here she was going to be presenting to us.

“But, there are certain elements that I would like to see us improve, like how we take our set pieces, how we can be creative, and how we can convert our chances because sometimes you get a team that’s too defensive and you don’t get open chances and we will need set pieces to come up for us. However, we will take it one game at a time.”