Banyana Banyana showed in their narrow last-gasp defeat against Sweden that they have their best chance yet of reaching the Women’s World Cup knockout stages in New Zealand and Australia.
The manner of 54th-ranked Banyana’s 2-1 loss, the third-ranked Scandinavians needing a 90th-minute winner when it seemed South Africa had done enough to earn a famous draw, captured the imagination of South Africans.
That match was played at a palatable 7am. After Banyana’s brave performance, it seems likely many South Africans — some who have been diehard Banyana fans for many years, others new to the pleasure of watching this country’s best national football ambassadors of recent times — will stay up to view their second match against Argentina in Dunedin at an ungodly 2am in the early hours of Friday morning.
South Africa seems likely to need to win against the 28th-ranked South Americans. Argentina are in a similar position having started with a 1-0 loss against 16th-ranked Italy.
Banyana, on the evidence of their display against Sweden, just might be able to stage an upset and earn their first World Cup victory if they are able to replicate the same intensity.
A confluence of factors such as having a squad young enough to have energy and experienced enough to be streetwise, many of them based in clubs around the globe, and a group confident from being African champions, have come together for coach Desiree Ellis’s women’s national team.
What seems sure is this generation will not have a better opportunity. They will know that. And the country does too, and they will root for Banyana to pull it off against Argentina.
Banyana might grow in strength — keeping to an established trajectory of the last two decades — in years to come. Future generations might have better chances to go past a group stage. Sport is hard to predict that way, and perhaps they might not.
What seems sure is this generation will not have a better opportunity. They will know that. And the country does too, and they will root for Banyana to pull it off against Argentina.
Even if South Africa does, another stern challenge awaits against Italy. A draw might not even be enough in the match back in Wellington on August 2 for Banyana to progress. They might need a second win against the odds.
Banyana, from the confident attitude and body language they displayed against Sweden, have grown since they were babes in the wood who stumbled to three defeats in their first World Cup in France four years ago — 3-1 against Spain, 1-0 against China and 4-0 against Germany.
They displayed fortitude in their opening game in Wellington. It was a similar strength in character shown in their stubbornness, refusing to back down in a contractual and treatment dispute with the South African Football Association in the week of their departure.
Such courage is what is needed as they seek to make history — either by bravely at least earning a first — World Cup win from one of their last two games, or, as South Africans dare to dream, perhaps even reaching the knockout stages as the lowest-ranked team in group G.
In the midst of a cold winter, load-shedding, and South Africa’s governmental, infrastructural and economic state of morbidity, Banyana, as they did winning the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in July last year, could bring much-needed warmth into fatigued South Africans’ tough lives if they manage either.
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