Atletico Madrid frontwoman Thembi Kgatlana believes that Banyana Banyana has what it takes to end Nigeria’s domination in the upcoming CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (AWCON) tournament set to take place in Morocco next month.
The tournament will commence on the 2nd of July until the 23rd of July 2022.
Desiree Ellis’ troops will take on the Super Falcons in their opening match of the competition on 4 July at Prince Moulay Hassan Sports Complex in Rabat.
South Africa are drawn in Group C, alongside rivals Nigeria, debutants Burundi and neighbours Botswana.
On records, out of the five AWCON finals that Banyana have played, three were against Nigeria of which the West Africans went to win all of them.
The 26-year-old forward believes that now is the right time to dethrone the Super Falcons’ domination in the 2022 AWCON edition.
“I think for a number of years Banyana hadn’t exported a lot of players overseas and that has given Nigeria and other teams the upper hand because they were able to export players,” Kgatlana told cafonline.com.
“But then things are starting to look good and exciting for Banyana because we have a number of overseas-based players, that means they are training every day, physically and mentally, at a high level.
“And we have the Hollywoodbets (Super League) that is on the season, that means the coaches will not have a problem getting the players to be fit than playing a tournament and some players are offseason.
“I think for a number of years Banyana have struggled because they were not able to export players but things are looking positive now.”
The top semi-finalists of the competition will qualify for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
“We don’t have to undermine anyone, it’s football and everyone is there to show what they can do and more specifically in our group having two debutants, for us, it’s going to be a challenge to be disciplined and still be able to bring our A-game even when we play teams that are lower ranked than us,” she added.
Kgatlana continued: “I mean getting into the quarter or semi-finals and for us is just taking one game at a time because we don’t want to say we’re gonna do this, do that and when things don’t happen we hold ourselves with a gun to the head.
“But taking one game at a time is what will help us, that is the same mentality we had in 2018 and the important thing was getting the results that we needed in the end.”
