FORMER Banyana Banyana striker, Portia “Bashin” Modise, reckons the South African senior women’s team still have a long way to go, judging by their 1-0 loss to world champions USA at the weekend.
Modise retired from international football last year, having played for Banyana since 2000. She scored the team’s only Olympic Games goal in London in 2012.
Bashin said South Africans should stop praising average performances by national teams.
In Banyana’s last four matches against the USA, Netherlands and Zimbabwe, they scored only once to win against their neighbours, losing all the other games.
Vera Pauw’s charges have one more preparation match against New Zealand before they start their Rio Olympics assignment.
Said Modise: “I think we have been getting good friendlies recently, losing 1-0 here and there, but I still think we have a long way to go. We need to work hard.
“In South Africa, we have a tendency of accepting mediocrity. I am tired of that now.
“For too long have people been saying ‘at least it wasn’t too bad’ when we lose.
“We need to win – at the end of the day we only remember the winners. We need to win and leave a mark, maybe we will move up the ranks.”
Modise believes a professional league would improve the standard of women’s football in the country, which could help them become more competitive on the world stage.
“Safa is not doing enough,” she reckons.
“PSL teams need to adopt women’s football in order for us to be promoted. We could play curtain-raisers for PSL matches so people can see that women’s football is alive.”
She also bemoaned the treatment women’s footballers receive in the country.
Said the 33-year-old: “I think it’s a problem that players from other countries are treated as professionals while we are not. When you get respect, you feel like a professional player and you give your best in what you do. But with us, it’s rare to find a woman footballer being treated as equal to a PSL player, even though we are doing the same thing for the country.”
