Three of South Africa’s national sporting teams are in action this year. 2019 is a busy sporting year. There’s the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the AFCON Cup, and the ICC Cricket World Cup. Banyana Banyana, Bafana Bafana, and the Proteas will all be hoping to bring home the gold. Here’s what you need to know about each of the tournaments.
Banyana Banyana
The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be happening in France in June. The team booked their first-ever place in the tournament in 2018. During the 2018 African Women’s Championship in Ghana, Banyana defeated Mali earning their place in the tournament.
However, just weeks after the tournament, another scandal emerged from the team camp with players saying they hadn’t been paid. This has been a recurring theme for the team. We can only hope that with the team going to France, they will finally be respected by SAFA.
Banyana will be taking on Spain, China, and Germany in order to progress pass the group stages of the tournament. The tournament kicks off June7 till June 7. So get your Banyana shirts and merch ready to support our players!
Bafana Bafana
South Africa lost the hosting rights for Afcon but at least Bafana Bafana will be representing the country. After much speculation and anticipation, the men’s soccer team booked their place for the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Egypt. They left it for the last minutes of the qualifiers to earn a place.
Bafana was actually the last of the 24 teams to qualify for the tournament. They defeated Libya 2-1 in March through two goals by Percy Tau to get a place to Egypt.
The team will be hoping all the hard work they put into the tournament isn’t for nothing when they arrive in Egypt. They are facing a tough group of Morocco‚ Ivory Coast and Namibia. The tournament will be kicking off from 21 June until 19 July.
The Proteas
The national cricket team will be heading to England and Wales to compete in the World Cup. They will do so hoping to escape the dreaded “C” title. (You know choker) The Proteas are notorious for being unable to progress past the dying stages of major tournaments. They also had to contend with taking on the hosts England in the opening match.
The tournament will be happening from 30 May to 14 July 2019. The cricket world cup is formatted in a round robin tournament. This means all ten participating teams will play each other once. The top four teams will progress. With this tournament is likely to be the final one for many in the squad, we can only hope the team manages to achieve something good over in England.
