South African Women's National Football Team / World Championships

Republic of South Africa
Republic of South Africa

World Cup record scorer :	Thembi Kgatlana (1 gate)
World Cup record player:	8 players (3 games each)
Rank :	33
Balance sheet
3 World Cup games 0 wins 0 draws 3 defeats 1: 8 goals
statistics
First World Cup game South Africa 1: 3 Spain Le Havre ( FRA ); June 8, 2019
Biggest World Cup defeat South Africa 0: 4 Germany Montpellier ( FRA ); 17th June 2019
successes
World Championship
Participation in the finals	1 ( First : 2019 )
Best results	Preliminary round
Best placements in the countries that host the FIFA World Cup
(As of June 17, 2019 )

The article contains a detailed description of the South African national soccer team for women at world championships . South Africa qualified for the 2019 World Cup finals for the first time in 2018 and is the sixth African team to take part in a World Cup finals. South Africa had failed six times before on the way to the World Cup, twice each to Nigeria and Ghana , and once each to Equatorial Guinea and the Ivory Coast. When they first played, South Africa took the lead in their first game against Spain , but then conceded three goals, two of them from penalties. Since the other two games were also lost, South Africa joined the group of teams without a win.

The national team at world championships

Overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1991	People's Republic of China	not allowed				suspended by FIFA
1995	Sweden	not qualified				Failed in the final of the African Cup of Nations 1995 to Nigeria.
1999	United States	not qualified				In the group stage of the 1998 African Cup of Nations, Ghana and Cameroon failed, but they also failed to qualify.
2003	United States	not qualified				Failed in the semi-finals of the 2002 African Cup of Nations against Nigeria .
2007	People's Republic of China	not qualified				Ghana failed in the semi-finals of the 2006 African Cup of Nations.
2011	Germany	not qualified				Failed in the semi-finals of the 2010 African Cup of Nations against Equatorial Guinea.
2015	Canada	not qualified				Failed in the game for third place in the 2014 African Cup of Nations on Ivory Coast
2019	France	Preliminary round	Spain , China , Germany		Desiree Ellis	Qualified by beating Mali 2-0 in the 2018 Africa Cup of Nations semi - finals

statistics

(Figures including 2019: Eight World Championships; percentages are rounded to one place after the comma)

• not permitted: once (12.5%; 1991)
• not qualified: six times (75% or 85.7% of the attempts)
• qualified: once (12.5%; 2019)
  • Preliminary round: once (12.5%; 2019)

The tournaments

World Cup 1991 in the People's Republic of China

As a result of the gradual dissolution of apartheid , the Republic of South Africa was not accepted back into the international association until 1992, so South Africa could not take part in the first women's World Cup . The team only played their first international match in 1993. Only Nigeria took part from Africa, which won the title at the first African Championship for women in 1991 .

World Cup 1995 in Sweden

Four years later, South Africa took part in the African Championship as one of six teams and prevailed against Zambia in the quarter-finals 5-3 and 6-2. The semi-finals were followed by a 3-1 home win over Angola and a 3: 3 in Angola, which led to the final against defending champions Nigeria. Here South Africa lost 1: 4 and 1: 7, so that Nigeria again qualified as the only African team. As a result, South Africa could not qualify for the first women's football tournament at the 1996 Olympic Games , as only the eight best teams from the World Cup could participate there.

World Cup 1999 in the USA

For the third world championship, for which the Africans received another starting place after increasing the field of participants to 16 teams, South Africa had reported again. For the 1998 African Cup of Nations, South Africa had to qualify against Swaziland, which succeeded with no problems with 9-0 and 6-0. In the championship, which is now being played in tournament form in Nigeria , South Africa lost 4-0 to Ghana and then 3-2 to Cameroon. Since Mozambique had withdrawn, also qualified , the last group game did not take place and South Africa was eliminated as third in the group.

2003 World Cup in the USA

The 2003 World Cup should actually take place again in the People's Republic of China . Because of the SARS epidemic, the tournament was moved to the USA at short notice. This was the second time that the World Cup took place in the USA. South Africa qualified for the 2002 African Cup of Nations , which again served as a World Cup qualifier and which again took place in Nigeria, with a 4-1 and 4-0 victory over Zambia . In the group stage, South Africa met Cameroon as they did four years before, but this time they won 2-1. In the second game a 1-1 draw against Angola followed , with a 3-1 win against Zimbabwe , South Africa became group winners. In the semifinals they lost 5-0 to Nigeria. The game for third place against Cameroon, which was insignificant for the World Cup qualification, was also lost 3-0.

World Cup 2007 in the People's Republic of China

Four years later the World Cup took place in the People's Republic of China for the second time . For the 2006 African Football Championship for women , which again served as a qualification and was again held in Nigeria - since Gabon withdrew as host, South Africa qualified with two wins (6: 1 and 6: 2) against Mozambique and two wins against Tanzania (4 : 0 and 3: 0).

The group stage started with a 4-0 win against Algeria, followed by a 2-0 win against Equatorial Guinea and a 2-0 win against Nigeria. As runners-up in the group, South Africa was in the semi-finals, but lost 1-0 to Ghana. The game for third place against Cameroon, which was again insignificant for the World Cup qualification, was won 5-4 on penalties after both had previously scored two goals each.

World Cup 2011 in Germany

The South Africans again failed to qualify for the World Cup in Germany . They were automatically qualified as hosts for the 2010 African Cup of Nations. In their first game they won 2-1 against Tanzania, but then lost to Nigeria with the same result. But with a 4-0 win against Mali, they secured second place in the group and advanced to the semi-finals. This they lost with 1: 3 after extra time against defending champions Equatorial Guinea , who qualified for the first time for the World Cup finals. In the game for third place, which remains insignificant for World Cup qualification, Cameroon was defeated 2-0 this time.

2015 World Cup in Canada

After South Africa for the football tournament of the women in the 2012 Olympic Games failed to qualify and had it prevailed against Ethiopia, the team was also the first World Cup finals for a qualify . For the third World Cup in North America, the number of starting places was increased to 24 and the Africans were now granted three places, which now also increased the importance of the game for third place.

For the African Cup of Nations 2014 , South Africa qualified with a 13-0 away win against the Comoros, which then did not play in South Africa.

In the group stage, they lost 1-0 to Cameroon, then scored a 1-1 draw against Ghana and reached the semi-finals with a 5-1 win against Algeria in second place due to the better goal difference before Ghana. In the semifinals they lost 2-1 to record winners Nigeria and the game for 3rd place against Ivory Coast was lost (0-1). This missed the World Cup finals, to which the Ivory Coast was able to drive for the first time, but which did not survive the preliminary round there. In October 2015, South Africa was able to qualify for the Olympic Games again .

World Cup 2019 in France

The qualification for the third World Cup in Europe takes place for the African teams via the 2018 African Football Championship for women , which will take place in Ghana from November 17 to December 1, 2018 . The three best teams in the tournament can qualify. In qualifying for this championship, South Africa only had to intervene in the second round and met Lesotho there , which had prevailed in the first round with two wins against Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). South Africa won both games (1-0 and 6-0) and qualified for the African Championship. There record champions Nigeria were defeated 1-0 in their first game. Then the South Africans inflicted the biggest defeat in their international history with a 7-1 victory in Equatorial Guinea. A final 1-1 draw against Zambia was enough to reach the semi-finals as group winners. With a 2-0 win against Mali, the final and the World Cup finals for the first time were reached.

The World Cup in France started for the South Africans with a 3-1 loss to Spain . Thembi Kgatlana had put the newcomer in the lead in the 25th minute. This lasted until the 70th minute, then the Spaniards were awarded a penalty that Jennifer Hermoso was able to convert. 13 minutes later, after video evidence , the Spaniards received another penalty and Nothando Vilakazi received a yellow-red card . Hermoso was able to convert that penalty too. When the South Africans then pushed for the equalizer, they received the third goal after a counterattack. In the second group game against China, the South Africans kept the 0-0 up to the 40th minute, then conceded the only goal of the game. This meant that they only had a chance to reach the round of 16 by winning the last game against Germany if there was a winner in the parallel game between China and Spain. Neither came true. Already in the 14th minute, the South Africans conceded their first goal, which was followed by two more until half-time. In the second half the South Africans got into the game a little better, but conceded another goal. In the parallel game, the two teams separated goalless, so that even a victory would not have been enough to advance.

Games

All World Cup games
No.	date	Result	opponent	venue	occasion	Remarks
1	06/08/2019	1: 3	Spain	Le Havre ( FRA )	Preliminary round	First game against Spain
2	06/12/2019	0: 1	People's Republic of China	Paris ( FRA )	Preliminary round
3	06/17/2019	0: 4	Germany	Montpellier ( FRA )	Preliminary round	First game against Germany

Note: the losses to Spain and Germany are the highest against these two countries as they were the first games against them.

Negative records

South Africa is one of the ten teams that have not yet won a World Cup game.

See also

• South African national soccer team / World Championships

Web links

• FIFA Women's World Cup ^TM

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games, see Technical Report FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015 ™ , page 159
2. ↑ fifa.com: "Olympic Football Tournament Atlanta Women 1996"
3. ↑ safa.net: Banyana Banyana makes history by qualifying for the FIFA World Cup