A Look At Banyana’s AWCON Rivals Rankings

With the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of nations looming on the horizon, many teams will start analysing their group opponents and the South African Women’s National Team will be no different.

Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis’ side are in Group C and they have been pitted against the Super Falcons, the number one ranked African team, who will be out for revenge after they went down to the South Africans in Nigeria in the maiden Aisha Buhari Cup Final in September last year.

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This will not be the first time that the two sides find themselves in the same AWCON group as they met in twice in the 2018 edition of the competition.

The first engagement in the group stages ended with a South African victory but the Falcons had the last laugh after they won the final between the two sides to clinch their 11th AWCON title.

Burundi and neighbours Botswana are the other sides in the group. Burundi will be viewed as “Underdogs” in Group C as they are unranked and will be making their first appearance in the AWCON finals.

Group C Rankings

*Nigeria
CAF Ranking – 1
FIFA Ranking – 39

*South Africa
CAF Ranking – 4
FIFA Ranking – 57

*Burundi
CAF Ranking – Not ranked!
FIFA Ranking – Not ranked!

*Botswana
CAF Ranking – 29
FIFA Ranking – 154

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Banyana Banyana began their preparations for the continental tournament when a preliminary squad assembled in camp on Friday 10 June and coach Ellis said finalising the final list of players for the event will present a selection headache for the Technical staff.

“We have had a good session. I thought the pace and the intensity that we played at was extremely quick and the one-two touch football was very good. Everybody is starting to step up and like I said, 21 does not go into 33,” Ellis told www.safa.net.

“Everybody raised their hands and we have a really big headache and that is what we want, to have a headache when selecting the final squad. We want to make sure we get the best players to do the job for us.”

Ellis recently called up Rhoda Mulaudzi as a replacement for the injured Gabriela Salgado who has been ruled out of action for eight weeks.

“It is a massive loss because she has been a key player for us. But this also gives others in the squad an opportunity to step up. We wish Gabby a speedy recovery,” Ellis said.