South Africa striker Thembi Kgatlana has rued South Africa’s missed opportunity for another victory after Banyana Bayana drew 2-2 with Sweden in Friday’s 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Group G encounter with Argentina on Friday.
The reigning Women’s Africa Cup of Nations champions took a 2-0 lead in Dunedin courtesy of Linda Motlhalo and Kgatlana before the Albiceleste clawed their way back with two late goals from Sophia Braun and Romina Nunez.
The result was another chance gone begging for South Africa’s first win in the Women’s World Cup after going from a goal up against Sweden in their opener to lose 2-1.
Kgatlana has called on the Banyana to show more hunger if they want to have any hopes of making it to the knockout phase for the very first time.
“In both games, against Sweden and then in this one, we conceded after leading. We are the ones making life difficult for ourselves,” she said. “We play so well and then in the end we drop points. In our last match against Italy, if we really want to go through, we need to be hungry until the last minute.
“I think we’re really strong when we play together as a team and that’s why we get results. In 2019, we scored one goal in the tournament. Already we have three goals here and that’s great. But we need to work on not conceding, especially in the last moments of the game.
“You can see there’s a big change from 2019 in terms of our hunger, our attacking and getting shots on target. More players in our team are playing abroad and that means they bring all that experience to help the national team.”
#ICYMI South Africa ???????? gave away a two-goal lead and settled for a 2-2 draw against Argentina ???????? in a Group G game earlier this morning.
Banyana Banyana have just a point after two matches.#Afrosport #SouthAfrica #BanyanaBanyana #FIFAWWC #Argentina #BeyondGreatness pic.twitter.com/387aUWHBUc
— AfroSport (@AfroSportTV) July 28, 2023
South Africa play their last group game against Italy in Wellington next Wednesday and Kgatlana emphasised the need to be in good shape for the crucial clash.
“You have four days, you have to travel, you have other things to do, but it’s very important for us to be fresh for the game,” she added.
“The fresher we are, the better we’ll play, and I think that’s something the coaches have to look at.”
South Africa are tied on one point with Argentina while Sweden and Italy are tied on three points each.
