Banyana will bounce back, says captain

13 October 2014 - 17:44 By Sapa
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Janine van Wyk during the South African Womens soccer team training session at Nike Training Centre on August 20, 2014 in Soweto, South Africa.
Janine van Wyk during the South African Womens soccer team training session at Nike Training Centre on August 20, 2014 in Soweto, South Africa.

A disappointed Banyana Banyana outfit will bounce back, captain Janine van Wyk said on Monday after a 1-0 loss to Cameroon in their opening group match of the African Women's Championship in Windhoek over the weekend.

Cameroon scored the only goal of the match in the dying minutes after a goal keeping error by Roxene Barker.

"We are very disappointed about the results, we wanted to go out and get a good result by winning, but this does not give us a reason to put our heads down," Van Wyk said.

"We have two games left and that will make us even stronger. We know that we have to win both games and I believe we have the team capacity to bounce back.

"We played very well, it was only one small mistake and they got the goal. We have a lot of experience to lift ourselves."

With the tournament being used as qualifiers for the 2015 Women's World Cup, Banyana Banyana's hopes of making it to the world stage were still alive, she said.

"We have to lift our heads because we are not a team to give up. We still have two chances to make it through to the world cup.

"We have to be strong and focus on our next step which is Ghana."

The match was the first loss since Dutch coach Vera Pauw took charge of the women's national team. Banyana Banyana went 10 games unbeaten in their preparation matches for the tournament.

The South Africans face Ghana on Wednesday and Algeria on Saturday, both matches being played in Windhoek, Namibia.

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