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Banyana feeling WAFCON pressure – Kgatlana

Banyana Banyana forward Thembi Kgatlana knows that there will be extra pressure on South Africa at this year’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, as a result of their status as defending champions.

South Africa won the last WAFCON in the same host country in 2022, beating Morocco 2-1 in the final to clinch their first title.

Kgatlana, who currently plays for Tigres UANL in Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil, expects a backlash from Banyana’s rivals in July, especially as Zambia’s Racheal Kundananji expects to dethrone the South Africans.

“I know that it’s going to be challenging… South Africa are the current champions and anyone, for sure will be fired up to prove themselves… It kind of brings a lot of excitement,” Kgatlana told ESPN.

However, Banyana are not new to playing with plenty at stake. Kgatlana recalled how they went to the 2023 FIFA World Cup off the back of a protest over remuneration and overall treatment by the South African Football Association (SAFA), knowing that despite their disrupted preparation, they could make a statement to the powers that be with strong performances.

She continued, “I think it was the protest that gave us the courage that we needed. We knew that once we protested, there was no turning back in terms of all our African teams being held captive [by critics who say]: ‘Hey; you want things, but you don’t perform.’

“We [in South African football] didn’t have that excuse because we were performing.”

However, one difference which Kgatlana cited between her experience at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the experience she expects to face at the upcoming WAFCON is that at the tournament, South Africa were not expected to make it out of the group stage, which they ultimately did.

Of the WWC, she said, “We knew that everybody didn’t believe in us coming out of the group stage, and that was fine with us. We were the underdogs and all the pressure was taken away from us. It would have been very difficult for us to be in a place where [we] were the stars of the show…

“For us, I think, it was the best time to go and play the football that we played, because no one believed in us.”

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