Banyana Banyana of South Africa have swiftly moved on from their triumph at the AITEO CAF Awards on Tuesday evening as they begin their World Cup preparations with a training camp which opens today in Cape Town.
South Africa were the biggest winners on the night as Thembi Kgatlana won the Women’s Player of the Year and Goal of the Year Awards while head coach Desiree Ellis emerged Women’s Coach of the Year.
The team have however moved on from that with the first of many training camps ahead of the World Cup.
During their training camp, the Banyana Banyana of South African will play two international friendlies – the first against Netherlands on Saturday, 19 January, followed by Sweden on Tuesday, 22 January.
Both matches will take place at the Cape Town Stadium and will kick off at 15h00 and 19h00 respectively. These games will however be preceded by a closed-door training match against Sweden on Thursday, 17 January 2019.
Meanwhile, reigning Women’s Coach of the Year, Desiree Ellis has announced a squad of 26 players to feature in these two games retaining the bulk of the team that secured the World Cup ticket at the 2018 AWCON in Ghana following a second place finish.
South Africa will also face the USA – World Champions, and currently the top-ranked team in the world on Sunday, 12 May 2019 according to information from the South African Football Association (SAFA).
This game will be held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California (South of San Francisco), as part of the USA and Banyana Banyana’s World Cup preparations.
The finals will be held in France from 7 June to 7 July, 2019 with South Africa grouped alongside Spain, China PR and Germany.
