Don’t Relax says Coach Mkhonza

The South African Senior Women’s National Team (Banyana Banyana) head coach Joseph Mkhonza has warned the 18-member squad selected to represent South Africa at the 2012 London Olympics scheduled to start from 25 July – 9 August 2012 not to take things easy. But he has full confidence in them to do well at the event.

The announcement was made at the South African Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee headquarters in Johannesburg on Wednesday, 6 June 2012.

“We should quickly indicate that we have the top 18 players but this does not make it the final squad. Players placed on the list from 19 to 35 are reserves in the event of injury or illness. As the technical team, our challenge now is to ensure that the top 18 that was announced does not become complacent because they have made the cut.

“We will expect them to continue in the manner they have been preparing as the job is not done yet, in fact it is just starting,” said Mkhonza after the team announcement.

Mkhonza says it was very difficult to decide on the 18 given the hard work of all the players in recent times, especially in their recent international friendly matches against Tanzania and Nigeria, as well as the African Women’s Championship (AWC) qualifier against Zambia.

“This has been the most difficult period for the Banyana Banyana technical team. Going through all the names and coming up with the 18 players was very hard, but something had to be done. But I need to emphasise that this is not the final squad as SASCOC will only announce the final Team South Africa squad on the 4th of July.

“So there could be some changes. I will still have players on standby in case any of the 18 sustain injuries as we build up to the Olympics. At the moment we are closely monitoring the players that sustained injuries in the previous camps and have given them a recovery period.”

Banyana Banyana will assemble for camp on Monday (11 June 2012) in preparation for the AWC return leg qualifier against Zambia to be played at the Kanyamazane Stadium in Nelspruit on Saturday (16 June 2012).

The qualifier will be followed by a return-leg international friendly match against Nigeria to be played in Lagos on Saturday 23 June 2012.