Banyana Banyana will use the Cosafa Women’s Championship tournament as part of their preparations for the CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) 2026, which will take place in Morocco in March.
Banyana will play Malawi in the first match of Group A this afternoon (Wednesday) in Polokwane after working extremely hard in the camp. The game starts at 3pm.
“For us, the bigger picture is the Wafcon, and we are using this tournament for that—similarly to them [Malawi], our goal is preparation for the Wafcon,” Banyana coach Desiree Ellis stated to the Safa website.
Ellis wants to win first game
“We want to see that connection, that synergy, and obviously you want to win your first game.
“However, we also expect the girls to deliver a strong performance tomorrow. We want to try new players and see as many as possible to get the mix right. We have a talented group of experienced players and also some exciting youth.
“Some are new internationally, some are not so new, but we want to look at as many players as we can during these next two weeks or so to make sure that when we do our final selection for Wafcon, we have the mix right.”
The South Africans are part of 11 countries participating in this year’s edition of the Cosafa Women’s Championship alongside Malawi, Lesotho, Angola (Group A), Zimbabwe, Botswana, reigning champions Zambia, Eswatini (Group B), Mozambique, Namibia, and Madagascar (Group C).
In the semi-finals, which will take place at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium on Friday, February 27, the top teams from each group will be joined by the best runner-up.
The finals are scheduled for March 1.
