It’s Rama: everything is going to be OK

Lebohang Ramalepe collected her player-of-the-match award at Stade d'Honneur in Oujda, Morocco, late on Monday night, and then the fun started.

She came running towards her team mates, veered away from them, held her trophy away from her body, made it curve through a wide arc at arms’ length before, finally, holding it high above her head to present it to the other players.

It was the after-party. And her gift to be shared by all those who were part of Banyana Banyana’s 4-0 thumping of Mali, which took them to the top of Group C in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

The emphatic, convincing win earned South Africa a tricky quarterfinal against rangy, gnarly Senegal in Oujda on Saturday.

But, on Monday, it was time to celebrate. As Ramalepe did with her delightful dance, which she performed with all the understated grace and elegance she has brought to her play throughout the tournament, including player-of-the-match awards in both her appearances — in the 2-0 opening win against Ghana and then Mali.

Normally a right-back, Ramalepe was the unsung hero in Banyana's successful campaigns winning the 2022 Nations Cup, also in Morocco, then becoming the first South African senior national team to reach a World Cup knockout stage in Australasia in 2023. Deployed as an attacking wingback in coach Desiree Ellis' formation at this Nations Cup, she has come into the limelight as arguably South Africa's best player of the group stage.

Against Ghana on a shimmering hot afternoon last Monday, Ramalepe found a moment of quiet in the vapour trail of a speedy break down the right-hand touchline. Her dagger-ish pass picked out Jermaine Seoposenwe, who buried the ball in the net for the second of South Africa’s two unanswered goals.

“We had to move the ball very quickly because they are a physical side, but I’m glad we managed to get three points,” Ramalepe said afterwards, sweat gleaming like diamonds on her forehead.

“We knew Ghana were not going to be easy, and that we couldn’t play the long ball. So we had to build up from the back.”

But she wasn’t satisfied: “Every team who are going to play against us want to beat us, so we have to pull up our socks; we should have won 5-0.”

Against unfancied Tanzania on a mercifully cooler evening four days later, Ramalepe crossed after a corner taken short for Bambanani Mbane to hammer home the vital equaliser in the 1-1 draw.

“We were expecting maximum points, but that’s football,” Ramalepe said. “We’ll take the one point and move on.”

Banyana enjoyed more than 60% possession and were awarded seven of the eight corners in the match. But, particularly in the first half, they struggled to come up with the ball in contested situations. Not even Tanzania midfielder Winfrida Gerald’s red card in the 84th could tilt the balance the South Africans’ way conclusively.

“There was too much of a rush in the final third as we tried to make the combinations, and after the red card there was the panic of trying to get the winning goal,” Ramalepe said. “Those mistakes let us down.”

She speaks with the same calm presence she brings to the field. But what’s changed is where she is on the pitch. With star striker Thembi Kgatlana not here for personal reasons, Desiree Ellis has deployed Ramalepe slightly more forward than the defensive position to which she is accustomed.

That has thrust more responsibility onto Ramalepe — she is now as much a part of the attack as she is of the defence, and finds herself having to impersonate a midfielder. But some players are to that manner born: give them more to do and they will do it. Ramalepe, it seems, is cast from that mould.

So when Seoposenwe’s fifth-minute attempt at goal against Mali was blocked, there was no surprise that the player in the right place at the right time was Ramalepe. Her lusty shot put the ball into the top right-hand corner, and began Banyana’s relentless assault on their opponents’ goal.

Three games into the tournament, they would seem to be acquiring the cohesiveness of the tight unit they will need to be to keep the title they won for the first time in 2022.

Ramalepe was instrumental then, too, but in a quieter way. This time she has been on the field for 219 of the 270 minutes Banyana have played, and she has set the tone for the dream of a twin triumph. Ramalepe is never far from the ball, never without a plan, and never short of options to make it happen. She is the glue that all teams need to stay together.

At 33, Ramalepe is among the older members of the squad. But that means she is also one of the most unruffled and unrufflable. She has seen it all before. And done it all before.

You look up, you see Rama, and you know everything is going to be OK.