Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rhulani Mokwena has send his best wishes to Banyana Banyana ahead of their last 16 FIFA Women’s World Cup match against the Netherlands on Sunday morning.
Sundowns is one of the five Premiership division sides that have a women’s team and Masandawana Ladies boost six players in the Banyana squad at the event in Australia and Zealand.
Banyana finished second in their group with four points to make the historic progression to the knock out phase in their second appearance at the finals – a first for any South African team men or women on the global stage.
Banyana were the lowest ranked team in their group but they gave a good account of themselves as underdogs. Now they face the Netherlands for a place in the quarter-finals on Sunday and Mokwena says what Banyana coach Desiree Ellis and her team have done is incredibly inspiring and they can achieve more.
“I speak on behalf maybe of the football club, especially the men’s team that we are very, very proud of them,” he said when asked by iDiski Times.
“We’ve been speaking about it a lot and there have been lots of conversations about how proud the players are of the Banyana players and their achievement.
“Desiree has been magnificent in her tenure as Banyana Banyana coach. She just keeps excelling and making us proud. She remains an inspiration from a coaching perspective when we look at her and her achievements we can only smile and admire what she has achieved and long may it continue.
“Congratulations to Banyana for making the entire nation proud and representing not just women’s fraternity with regards to football but the football fraternity as a whole. And now that they have achieved an incredible milestone impossible is nothing.
“So we wish them all the best for the remaining games and I think they can cause a lot of surprises, if they continue to work as hard as they have been working for each other and keep believing that they can win more games because the performances have been really, really in that direction where we all have that confidence and we wish them all the best”
Banyana’s Round of 16 clash kicks off at 04:00 (SAST).
