Banyana Banyana will kickoff their 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup against Sweden on the 23rd of July at the Wellington Regional Stadium.
Banyana are in a difficult Group G, with Argentina and Italy as the other two nations.
But before that, adequate preparations will be key if Banyana are to prove themselves competitive in the main event, hence their friendly international against Serbia on Monday 10 April at the SC FA of Serbia-Stara Pazova.
As the African Champions wrap up their preparations, goalkeeper, Andile Dlamini, who plays for Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies in the Hollywoodbets Super League, believes the lessons learned from their previous World Cup appearance in France, will help them do better this time around to make the country proud.
"The first World Cup was incredible for us, we went there for experience and we learnt that the game has much improved. The World Cup is the highest level and mentally we are switched on and we understand the demands," said Dlamini as quoted by Sowetan Live. https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/sport/soccer/2023-04-08-serbia-friendly-will-assess-quality-of-banyanas-preparation-says-dlamini/
"The lesson that we have learnt from the previous World Cup is that the speed of play is on a different level. You make sure that you focus on the task at hand, which is the group stages.
"We must make sure that we perform to the best of our abilities and make the country proud."
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Banyana coach, Desiree Ellis, has been left impressed with the improvements the players have shown so far in their preparations.
"I think it was a worthwhile and fruitful exercise bringing in the players early and working on some things that we needed to work on. I think it really helped us," said Ellis.
"We had a bit of a break with players going back to play (in the Hollywoodbets Super League) and when they returned we could see players showing up. Nicole Michael scored a hat-trick, Thubelihle Shamase scored a bicycle kick and Katlego Moletsane did well as a goalkeeper. This is what we want to see when players go back to their clubs.
"The attitude, the work rate and effort was all there. We worked a lot and could see slowly but surely, the improvements. Now we go to the next part of the camp where we travel to Serbia and we meet the overseas-based players."
