4 September 2018 – A total of 21 Banyana Banyana players reported for camp on Monday, 3 September leading up to this year’s COSAFA Women’s Championship which will take place from 12 to 22 September in Port Elizabeth.

Coach Desiree Ellis expressed how pleased she was, also adding that she will use the rest of this week to prepare her charges for what promises to be a tough but exciting tournament.

Banyana Banyana go in to this year’s Southern regional football tournament as defending champions after beating Zimbabwe 2-1 in last year’s edition in Bulawayo.

South Africa were drawn in Group A and will lock horns with Madagascar, Malawi and Botswana in pursuit of reaching the knockout stages of the competition.

“With all due respect, we are the highest ranked national team in our region. Cameroon might be the highest ranked side in this tournament; however, we still remain the highest ranked national side in this region of ours. And that means any national team we play against will want to beat us. Our players are also aware of that fact and we are okay with that” said Ellis.

“In our group,” Ellis added.  “We will be playing against sides like Madagascar, Botswana and Malawi. We have gathered enough footage on all of them to just have a look at how they play. That is very important for us because knowing as much as possible about our opponents will help us plan better and stick to our style of play. We will analyse all of them because we want to do well in this tournament. We want to start well in this year’s edition because that will play a key role in us building from that performance.”