Ronwen Williams tipped to save South Africa economy

South Africa goalkeeper Ronwen Williams should be made his country’s finance minister to ‘save the economy’ after his player of the match performance against Cape Verde, his team-mate Grant Kekana joked.

The Bafana Bafana captain saved four penalties in a remarkable performance that earned him the player of the match award after their  quarter-final shootout in Yamoussoukro.

Williams, 32, also denied Gilson Benchimol with an incredible reaction save to push the Blue Sharks forward’s effort on to the bar after he was put through with a chance win the match in injury time at the end of 90 minutes.

“He is a world-class goalkeeper,” South Africa defender Grant Kekana said.

“I think he should be made the minister of finance – he can save South Africa’s economy.”

 

Williams reserved praise for the team’s analysts, who he said have “filled his phone” with clips of penalties taken by Cape Verde.

The stopper, who won the inaugural African Football League with Mamelodi Sundowns last season, says he had a “good idea” where the penalties would be going thanks to the work of the team behind the scenes and his highlight was the save to deny Benchimol rather than the shootout.

“There weren’t too many clear-cut chances and that was one where that got in behind the defence and there was only a few minutes to go,” Williams said.

“So for me that save stands out more than anything else. I’m just proud I could keep my team in the game because they don’t give me so much work to do.”

Bafana Bafana have not conceded a goal at the tournament since their opening match, when they lost 2-0 to Mali.

Kekana, who plays alongside Williams for Sundowns, was overlooked for that game but has been an ever present since in the heart of the defence to coincide with the series of clean sheets.

“We understand that, if we don’t concede you don’t lose games,” he said. “So we try so hard to work as a team. We start defending from the front to give us the chance of winning the game.”

 

South Africa, 66th in the Fifa rankings, were not among the fancied teams for the tournament but now come up against Nigeria, the favourites to lift the trophy in Abidjan on Sunday.

“It’s another tough opponent. Nigeria has a lot of quality players but we believe in ourselves,” Kekana added.

“We’re gonna go to the drawing board, plan accordingly, and give ourselves a chance of getting a positive result against them.”

The last-four appearance is South Africa’s first since 2000, four years after their sole Afcon title.

Bafana Bafana have already overcome the pre-tournament favourites, Morocco, in the knockout stage.

Their coach Hugo Broos, who led Cameroon to the 2017 Afcon title, is far from surprised by the progress and the manner of it on Saturday.

Source: BBC Sports