Women’s Soccer Must Improve

National women’s soccer coach, Augustine Makalakalane says there is room for improvement in the women’s game in South Africa, especially when it comes to skills.

He was speaking to gsport form Qwa Qwa in the Free State where the top nine women’s teams, who are champions of their respective provinces, are battling it out for national honours in the Vodacom Promotion Playoffs.

“I think the standard can improve. We are still lacking a lot of basic techniques. Some people can’t jump, they don’t use the high ball enough, they struggle with pace.

“The biggest challenge is upper body strength. We are not athletic enough, if we play with other African countries, they are stronger, and we find that we are still lagging behind.”

The Banyana Banyana coach says he is looking forward to meeting with the various provincial coaches during the week.

“I want to give them background on what the national women’s team is doing and where we are going. I want to help them understand their players better and get them to play effective football. That’s the challenge I have for the provinces.

The main reason Makalakalane is in Qwa Qwa, is to select some fresh talent for the national women’s squad, who get together for a training camp in Eastgate next week.

“I’ve watched four games. Yesterday, I saw two players that I like and today I saw one. At national level, we’re lacking strikers, so I’m happy with the two strikers I found. I’m also watching players in other positions and we’ll see how things go by the end of the week.”