This will be South Africa’s second match of group B at the African Women’s Championships, after they suffered a heart-breaking 1-0 loss to Cameroon in the opening match on Sunday afternoon - a goal that came in the dying minutes of regulation time.
Banyana Banyana will be looking to bounce back to winning ways and into contention for a place in the Women’s World Cup next year.
“I am impressed with the team’s performance, we dominated three quarters of the game against Cameroon. They created one chance out of a mistake from our build-up [and scored].
We have analysed the match and we have been working on fixing what we picked-up from that match,” said coach Vera Pauw.
Captain Janine Van Wyk is confident that Banyana will get a positive result in the match, noting that the team has the experience to bounce back.
“We are not under pressure at all, we have the experience in the team to lift ourselves up,” said van Wyk.
“We know it is do-or-die for us, it is going to be a tough battle for us as Ghana is going come out guns blazing. We just have to keep our focus and we can come out with a positive result,” added the Banyana captain.
Banyana Banyana have to win the match to keep their World Cup qualification dream alive. Algeria and Cameroon are the only teams in Group B with maximum points thus far, while South Africa and Ghana will have to battle it out on Wednesday night.
Ghana also lost by the same one-goal margin to Algeria in their opening match, and in the same fashion, conceding a last gasp goal. They will be looking to get maximum points from the match.
The last time the Sasol sponsored women’s national team played against Ghana was in an international friendly match played in South Africa in May, ahead of the team’s African Women’s Championship qualifier against the Union of Comoros. The match ended 1-0 in favour of Ghana.
Banyana Banyana have found themselves in a similar situation before, when they lost their opening match at the 2012 African Women’s Championships, but went on to win all their other matches en route the finals.
“We have been in the same situation before,” noted van Wyk.
“In 2012 we lost our first match against Equatorial Guinea, and we are not dropping our heads because we have lost our first game. We know that we have a chance to qualify.
“We have done it in the past and I don’t see why we cannot do it now,” concluded the 27-year-old.