South Africa’s Magaia Declares Fit To Face Argentina

Banyana Banyana’s ‘breadwinner’, Hildah Magaia has been declared fit for today’s group G match against Argentina as South Africa look to get their FIFA Women’s World Cup on track.

Desiree Ellis’s side had to agonizingly watch a 1-0 lead evaporate right in their eyes when they lost 2-1 to Sweden in the opening match. Magaia scored the opener and then injured her wrist in the same match which led to suggestions that she might miss out on the rest of the tournament.

Whether she is ready to play or not, Ellis says whoever she selects knows and understands the weight of responsibility. At the same time, the Banyana mentor does not downplay Magaia’s importance.

“When Hileda gets in front of goal, 9 times out of 10 she will put it in the back of the net and we saw that in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

“She’s very influential and versatile and can play in front of the front three and even though sometimes she starts from the left side, she can drift to the centre. But we don’t concentrate on one player because everyone in our team can score and we pride ourselves on teamwork,” Ellis told the media ahead of the game.

The Banyana mentor admits that her side had themselves to blame for not being resolute in defence and not taking their chances against Sweden. However, Ellis has left no stone unturned as she has prepared for Argentina to the final detail.

“After such a magnificent performance against Sweden, we take a lot of positives from that. I think we were defensively very sound until the very end and going into this game against Argentina is a must-win. We must not only just win the match but we have to score goals to give us a realistic chance in the last match,” said Ellis.

“We have analyzed them and I am sure they have done the same and we have taken the positives and we have looked to see how we can do better. We are always going to create chances and we have worked a lot on our finishing like we always do but this time we work on finishing to make sure that players are in a better position we make sure to pass the ball. And if we are defensively sound we will get the positive results that we need.”

The tie is scheduled for the wee hours of Thursday morning at 2 am South African time. Follow this link for in-depth details about the game.