Banyana Banyana 'scared' of Mighty Warriors

Banyana Banyana coach Vera Pauw believes Zimbabwe will provide her side with ideal preparation for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, South African media has reported.

However, Zimbabwe media says the Mighty Warriors' camp is in shambles  after some clubs loyal to ousted Miriam Sibanda's leadership recalled their players from camp for weekend league games.

This left coach Shadreck Mlauzi livid as only 12 players remained in camp from the 30 that he had called up.

Banyana and their neighbours face each other in an international friendly at the Makhulong Stadium on Sunday at 3pm.

The two teams will use the friendly to apply the final touches to their preparations for the Olympics as both sides have qualified to represent the African continent at the world's most prestigious sporting event taking place in August in Brazil.

Pauw, who has never defeated Zimbabwe as Banyana coach, believes the visitors will bring the fight to Banyana.

The Dutch-born coach has played twice against the Zimbabwean side and drawn both.

In Brazil, she has her work cut out for her, with Banyana drawn in Group A against hosts Brazil, China, who were runners-up in 1996 and quarterfinalists in 2008 and Sweden, who reached the quarterfinal stage in 2008 and 2012.

"The Zimbabweans are also going through their preparations, so they will be up for the game and that will make a good exercise for us," Pauw said.

"They have beaten other good teams and they put us under a lot of pressure both times we played them. That is what we need." The coach said the upcoming match will also be an opportunity for football followers to see what the two countries can potentially achieve at the Olympics.

"We have deliberately chosen Zimbabwe for all the promotion that we can get for people to see the cream of Africa's women footballers."

Pauw also revealed that South Africa will have further friendlies against a number of European opponents and said the announcement would be made soon on which teams they would face.

"Yes, hopefully we can finalise the arrangements. We cannot announce that now but I hope that in the next few days we will announce which European opponents we are going to face.

"We need to play nations that will give us resistance to get ready for the Olympics, maybe we will get a big defeat but we better get that now than in the first game of the Olympics."