THEMBI Kgatlana believes her South Africa team can give Nigeria a run for their money at the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations next month.
The tournament will be held in Morocco from July 2 to July 23, with South Africa and defending champions Nigeria in the same Group C.
The Super Falcons of Nigeria have won nine of the 11 Women’s AFCON tournaments, beating South Africa’s Banyana Banyana in three finals, including the last one in Ghana in 2018.
However, Banyana Banyana had a measure of revenge last September when they beat the Super Falcons 4-2 in Lagos to win the Aisha Buhari Invitational Tournament.
Kgatlana believes her side have the capability to end Nigeria’s domination of the tournament.
“I think for a number of years Banyana hadn’t exported a lot of players overseas and that has given Nigeria and other teams the upper hand because they were able to export players,” the Atletico Madrid forward told CAF.
“But then things are starting to look good and exciting for Banyana because we have a number of overseas-based players, that means they are training every day, physically and mentally, at a high level.
“And we have the Hollywoodbets (Super League) that is in season, that means the coaches will not have a problem getting the players to be fit, rather than playing a tournament and some players are offseason.
“I think for a number of years Banyana have struggled because they were not able to export players but things are looking positive now.”
Kgatlana, who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player in 2018 after leading South Africa to the final with five goals, says the primary objective of her team is to qualify for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Banyana Banyana’s opening match is against the Super Falcons on July 4 but the 2018 African Women’s Footballer of the Year is not dismissing the group’s other teams, Botswana and Burundi.
“We don’t have to undermine anyone, it’s football and everyone is there to show what they can do and more specifically in our group having two debutants, for us it’s going to be a challenge to be disciplined and still be able to bring our A game even when we play teams that are lower ranked than us,” Kgatlana noted.
“I mean getting into the quarter-finals or semi-finals for us is just taking one game at a time because we don’t want to say we’re gonna do this, do that and when things don’t happen we hold ourselves with a gun to the head.
“But taking one game at a time is what will help us, that is the same mentality we had in 2018 and the important thing was getting the results that we needed.”
The four semi-finalists from the 12-team tournament will qualify for the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
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