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South Africa are part of a 12-team field for the women’s football competition, the first time that Banyana have qualified for a major Fifa finals.
They go into the draw with Great Britain (hosts), world champions Japan, North Korea, Cameroon, United States, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, New Zealand, Sweden and France
The team have spent the last few weeks training for the Games in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape, but lost a friendly against the Ajax Cape Town boys’ Under-17 side 6-0 last week.
“The match allowed us to identify areas that need work and we took a lot out of it as our homework,” coach Joseph Mkhonza says. “We will need more of these games to sharpen the team for the rigours of the Games because, as I have been saying, we don’t want to go there and make up the numbers.
“We want to be highly competitive against the top women’s football nations in London and make our country proud.” The draw will see the teams split into three groups each containing four countries. The top two nations in each pool advance to the quarter-finals, along with the two best-ranked third-place finishers.
The field is superbly strong one, with eight of the top 10 women’s nations in the Fifa Rankings having qualified for the tournament, with only Germany and Australia missing out.
Banyana are the lowest ranked country at number 65, followed by their African counterparts Cameroon at number 52.
Adding his experience to the group will be technical advisor Shakes Mashaba, who was coach of the South African men’s Under-23 side that competed at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, famously beating Brazil 3-1 before bowing out of the competition at the first stage.
The South African men’s side failed to qualify for the 2012 tournament after sending an under-strength squad, led by Mashaba, to the qualification tournament in Morocco in November and December. — SuperSport.com
Online Reporter