The two teams clash again tomorrow afternoon at Caledonian Stadium in Tshwane with team manager Fran Hilton-Smith expressing confidence in that the team will overcome the alleged age-cheats.
“We have good chances of beating these big ‘Under-23s’ from Cameroon. In the first leg, we created the chances but just failed to put them away and I firmly believe that when we play at home we will produce a match-winning performance. I urge fans to fill the stadium and give the girls the courage to achieve the crucial victory that we need.
“It was the first time that our girls played a competitive match against Cameroon, but there were a lot of positives coming out of that encounter,” Hilton-Smith tells snl24.com/kickoff.
The only absentee in the Augustine Makalakalane-coached team will be first choice goalkeeper Nonhle Nene who was injured in the first leg.
The South Africans will be hoping to gain inspiration from their senior colleagues, Basetsana, who have just won the Cosafa Cup tournament.
Cameroon flew into the country on Wednesday bringing basically the same squad that took to the field two weeks ago that featured suspiciously over-age players.
However, the finalisation of the CAF qualifying route to the World Cup, to be staged in New Zealand from October 30 to November 16, remains unsettled after Fifa reduced the qualifying berths for CAF from three to two.
Only six African countries entered the qualifiers but Liberia, who were due to play Nigeria, have since withdrawn.
“CAF proposed to Fifa to sponsor a round robin of matches, but the world governing body declined to sponsor the matches. It is now up to CAF to decide how the two teams will be determined and, as of now, I am still in the dark. But whatever decision CAF comes up with, FIFA has indicated that they want to know the names of the two qualifiers by May 31 ahead of the draw,” explains Hilton-Smith.
Ghana and DR Congo are the other two teams remaining in the contest.
