{"id":36348,"date":"2026-06-05T17:58:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36348"},"modified":"2026-06-05T17:58:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:58:30","slug":"banyana-welcome-japan-test-ahead-of-wafcon-defence","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/banyana-welcome-japan-test-ahead-of-wafcon-defence\/","title":{"rendered":"Banyana welcome Japan test ahead of WAFCON defence \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Defending African champions Banyana Banyana are embracing a rigorous international test against Japan to sharpen their competitive edge ahead of next month&#8217;s Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Morocco.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Senior players including goalkeeper Andile Dlamini and star forward Thembi Kgatlana believe the upcoming international friendlies against the fifth-ranked Japanese side will provide a crucial yardstick for the team&#8217;s tactical progress. South Africa enters the high-profile fixtures with strong momentum following back-to-back friendly wins over Algeria in April, where they secured a 1-0 victory in Durban before sealing a comfortable 2-0 win.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Dlamini highlighted that testing themselves against elite global opposition is exactly what the squad needs to identify areas for improvement before launching their continental title defense. The high-stakes matches will offer head coach Desiree Ellis a definitive look at her players&#8217; readiness as they prepare to defend their African crown at the 2026 WAFCON tournament.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":36349,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-36348","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Banyana Banyana are embracing a rigorous international test against Japan","published_date":"2026-06-05 16:09:12","news_description":"Banyana Banyana are embracing a rigorous international test against Japan","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36350,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36348\/revisions\/36350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}