Banyana prepare to clear Zimbabwe from their trophy path

Cape Town - Banyana Banyana’s goal statistics at the COSAFA Women’s Championship in the “Friendly City” of Port Elizabeth are very impressive even as defending champions.

Coach Desiree Ellis’ team have found the net a whopping 23 times in their three group matches and a further boost is that they conceded just one goal.

This pretty set of figures suggests that Zimbabwe are going to have to pull a rabbit out of the hat to subdue the heavily-favoured South Africans in the semi-finals of the regional competition at Wolfson Stadium tomorrow.

However, the neighbouring team will draw some confidence from their own smooth victories, which featured a total of 15 goals and, like Banyana, only one conceded.

During Banyana’s 3-0 win over Madagascar in their last group game at Wolfson Stadium on Monday, midfielder Mamello Makhabane celebrated her 100th cap for the national team.

She then said about the coming game: "There is always room for improvement and you can never be fully satisfied with your performance, but I thinking winning all three games so far says something, it’s good motivation for us, since we didn’t do well at the World Cup recently and in previous matches.

"Against Zim­babwe, we are going to be tested. They are not an easy team to beat. The game is going to need our full concentration and determination."

Banyana have experienced midfield star Refiloe Jane as their stand-in captain following the injury-enforced sidelining of defender Janine van Wyk.

The other semi-final of the competition will be between Zambia and Botswana after the sides played to a 0-0 draw, and Namibia crushed Mauritius 8-0.

That affair will take place at 12:30 on Wednesday at Wolfson Stadium, with Banyana versus Zimbabwe following at 15:30.

The third-place play-off is set for 15:00 on Saturday and the final is exactly 24 hours later.