World Cup stories: when Janine van Wyk ate a piece of Parc des Prince’s turf, and battled China

An extract from 185 The Janine van Wyk Story, as told to Firdose Moonda (Karavan Press), on leading South Africa in their first World Cup:

The next day we travelled to Paris to prepare to play China at Parc des Princes Stadium, which was an occasion all of us were looking forward to even though we had to move to a less spacious hotel and the trip was already starting to feel a little long. All of our training sessions were at night, from 8pm, so we had all day to ourselves.

Because of the strict regulations about what we could do outside of the camp, we spent most of the time in our rooms, not seeing much. Even though it was seven years on from the London Olympic Games, the culture of our football had not evolved at all and we were treated like children. Team management still didn’t trust us to venture out on our own. If we were to do any sight-seeing, it had to be a group activity.

On one day we went to the Eiffel Tower as a squad, but we had instructions about where we could go and how long we had to be there. I loved seeing one of the most iconic landmarks in Paris and had to wrestle with the emotions of wanting more versus the privilege I knew we had. So many others would have loved to play football and travel like we did, and I was always careful not to let emotions and frustrations get the better of me.

Still, all our days started to feel the same: we’d wake up, have breakfast, watch something or contact home from our rooms, then have lunch, go to training, followed by dinner and a meeting. We only got to bed around 1am. I had one break from the routine when my uncle Mike, aunt Kim and some family friends came to visit me at our hotel. They had travelled from the US to support Banyana and I wanted to make sure that we gave them something to cheer for in our next match against China.

Parc des Princes Stadium can be considered a site of pilgrimage for anyone serious about football. It’s France’s biggest stadium, home to their most successful club, Paris Saint-Germain, and was the stomping ground of legends like Brazil’s Ronaldinho and Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon. Given that we only had limited chances to play at our own World Cup stadiums, the opportunity to step out at one of the cathedrals of the game and showcase our skills was not lost on us. Everyone was excited to be there, especially me, and I ended up behaving completely out of character and surprising myself with what I did when we arrived for our session.

As we got onto the turf, I re-enacted the penalty Marcus Rashford scored for Manchester United in the Champions League to put PSG out of the competition. Everyone had a good giggle. But no one could quite believe it when I bent down, pulled a handful of grass off the ground and put it in my mouth. I even got some stuck in my teeth. My teammates were laughing so hard they could hardly stand and a few of them asked me what I was thinking. Honestly? I don’t really know, but how many people can say they have eaten a bit of the Parc de Princes pitch?

We put all the jokes aside quickly and began to prepare for our second game. If there was an opposition we thought we would be able to beat, it was China, who were the only team in our group (other than us) ranked outside the top 10. They were sixteenth, which was still a long way ahead of us, and had put up a brave showing in their opening against Germany, but we felt we knew a little bit more about them from our match at the 2016 Olympics and we knew we had grown a lot as a team since then.

As Thembi [Kgatlana] said before the match, we had realised that teams were not quite able to figure us out and so they weren’t sure how to approach playing against us. We had to take advantage of that.

I was proud of the team for the character and fight they showed and told the players that we could walk off that hallowed ground with our heads held high.

—  Janine van Wyk

It was Thembi who had the chance to walk the talk when she had a shot at goal half-an-hour into the match, which started slowly, but she sent the ball wide. Just before halftime, we had a lapse in concentration and China sent in a high ball that came off Li Ying’s knee and into the net. They almost scored again a few seconds later — we felt like we had been shaken awake.

We came out in the second half with a nothing-to-lose attitude and played more attacking football, but even though we pushed forward, we just couldn’t score. The game ended 1-0 to China, but I didn’t feel as though we had done badly at all. We made them work for their win.

I was proud of the team for the character and fight they showed and told the players that we could walk off that hallowed ground with our heads held high. In my career, I don’t recall another time when I felt that good after a loss. Desiree [Ellis, Banyana’s coach] was also happy with our performance and said afterwards that we proved we had not just come to the World Cup to make up numbers and that we were competing with the best in the world.

The same sentiment wasn’t reaching us from home. We knew that people were disappointed that we had not won either of our games. We understood that for the public, results mattered and because they were not living the day to day with us, they didn’t see the small progressions we’d made. We had to recognise those by ourselves, except nobody was in the mood for celebrating after the game.

It had been a tough, physical encounter and many of us, including me, had picked up small niggles or exacerbated old injuries. I hurt my hamstring and felt a small groin strain during the China game. I was worried I’d not have enough time to recover for the next game. We had a day for travel to Montpellier and two to train before our last game against Germany, and I was desperate to be ready.

• 185 The Janine van Wyk Story, as told to Firdose Moonda, is available in bookshops from August 11. Pre-orders can be placed at Karavan Press: https://karavanpress.com/.