Banyana Banyana coach Vera Pauw is happy with the progress made by her team following Tuesday’s practice match against the School of Excellence U16 Boys side.

Head coach of the Sasol-sponsored Banyana Banyana, Vera Pauw, is happy with the progress made by her team following Tuesday’s practice match against the School of Excellence U16 Boys side.

The practice match against the School of Excellence formed part of preparations for the international friendly match against Zimbabwe scheduled for Saturday, 12 April 2014 at the Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto. Kick-off is at 13h30.

The Sasol-sponsored South African Senior Women’s National team was divided into two groups going down 4-0 in the first match and 2-1 in the match played later in the day.

Sasol Banyana Banyana will have their last training session at the Bedfordview FC training fields on Thursday before moving to the match venue for the captains’ session on Friday, 11 April.

Head coach, Vera Pauw with the assistance of interim assistant coach and former national team captain, Desiree Ellis, says she is happy with the build-up to the game against Zimbabwe. She added that the team was making huge improvements and that she was impressed with this.

The South Africans are working towards securing a spot in the eight nations CAF African Women’s Championships. The same tournament will be used as the continental qualifiers for 2015 edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.

“Following yesterday’s training against the boys, I’m happy with what I have seen so far. We are making huge steps everyday and yesterday’s matches were important as they allowed us to test how far the players have come and to see if everyone understands what we have been going through in each of the sessions this past week

“Selecting the final 18 players for the friendly against Zimbabwe is not going to be easy because all the players are giving 100% in the training sessions and competition is very tight. The game against Zimbabwe is a building block for us and I am looking forward to seeing how they perform on Saturday,” said Pauw.

The Zimbabwean Women’s National team arrive in South Africa in two groups on Wednesday, 9 April.