South African forward Jermaine Seoposenwe, who is playing in her second FIFA Women’s World Cup, says she and her teammates are unfazed by external comments from experts who think they don’t deserve to still be at the tournament.
The Mexico-based forward, who provided the assist for Thembi Kgatlana’s goal against Argentina, echoes the thoughts of head coach Desiree Ellis by revealing they are unbothered by any criticism as no one gave them a chance of reaching this far.
“I think you could see the team is is not fazed by those comments,” the 29-year-old said. “They’re not fazed by the opinions of anyone and they’re not fazed about being the underdogs or whether or not we’re going to be able to compete with the Netherlands or whether or not we should be here.
“We’ve shown that we should be here. We’ve competed with the top nations in the team.
“No one gave us a chance to get out of the group. We’re African champions and people still didn’t give us a chance,” she added.
Seoposenwe started all the three games Bayana Bayana have played in the competition so far and is expected to be in the line-up when they take on the Netherlands in the round of 16.
“We had to go through a tough schedule getting to this position. So has the Netherlands,” Seoposenwe stated.
“That’s the tournament. You kind of go up and down. But I know that we’ve kind of managed in training in terms of the loads for players, and so I think the team will be fresh.”
The African champions won their first-ever match at the Women’s World Cup and qualified in place of Italy, whom they defeated 3-2 in an enthralling affair in the final group game on Wednesday.
Having qualified for the knockout phase for the first time also, South Africa will face the Netherlands at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney, Australia, in the early hours of Sunday, August 7, at 3 a.m. WAT.
YOU CAN WATCH THE MATCH BETWEEN THE NETHERLANDS AND SOUTH AFRICA LIVE ON AFROSPORT ON FREE TV CHANNEL 730 OR STREAM ON VIDIVU FROM 2:30AM WAT
