Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies head coach Jerry Tshabalala says he needed to manage the Banyana Banyana players who were at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand better ahead of the CAF Women’s Champions League COSAFA qualifiers.
Karabo Dhlamini and Tiisetso Makhubela were the only of the five Banyana World Cup stars in Sundowns’ that played in their Hollywoodbets Super League win over Copperbelt Ladies in Polokwane over the weekend.
Goalkeeper Andile Dlamini was named on the bench, while Bambanani Mbane is still nursing the injury she picked in Banyana’s 2-0 loss to the Netherlands in the last 16 at the global showpiece.
Tshabalala explains he had plans to give Dlamini some minutes, especially after not playing for a while, even at the World Cup, but it was not possible.
“When you look in terms of Andile Dlamini, she hasn’t had much game-time, Sedi [Sedilame Boseja] has been doing well. We wanted to give Andile a run today but the game didn’t pan out the way we wanted it to pan out,” Tshabalala told iDiski Times.
“Also Rama [Lebogang Ramalepe] she had a bit of a muscle pull, hence she’s not here as well as Bambanani, you know that she’s out injured.
“We brought Karabo Dhlamini she’s here, the whole team was here it’s just a pity that some of them in terms of fatigue we needed to manage them better.”
Tshabalala added that the team has felt pressure preparing for the Champions League qualifiers with the date changes from COSAFA.
“The fixtures of COSAFA were scheduled for later not now, they just moved them early. So it put us under massive pressure in terms of changing the manner in which we prepare for COSAFA and the league.
“We were expecting to play something like two or three games before we moved to COSAFA, that would have sharpened us but it is what it is.
“When we were training, while the other girls were at the Wold Cup we were training in such a way that now we got information that we were only going to play one game and go to COSAFA.
“So basically we were trying to see how to adjust in terms of fatigue in terms of injuries and all that but I think we’ve managed to get the squad better”
The 2021 Champions League winners open their 2023 qualifiers in group B against Olympic de Moroni from Comoros on Thursday at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium.
