South Africa

By Tommy Ballantyne

The South African under-21 side staged a remarkable comeback from being 2-0 down at half-time to beat the touring French senior women's team 3-2 at Durban's Queensmead Astroturf yesterday and square the three-match series after losing 1-0 on Monday.

SA coach Jenny King said: "The way we played in the last 20 minutes is how I would have liked us to play for 70 minutes."

France got off to a dream start in only the third minute when Peggy Bergere struck an unstoppable shot to SA goalkeeper Annemie Botha's left.

The South Africans came back with two short corners of their own, Liesle Dorothy shooting wide at the first while the second was squandered and two chances to equalise were lost.

Erratic passing by the South Africans gave valuable possession to the French, yet Aurelie Noel had to clear the ball off the French goalline to keep out another scoring opportunity with the SA players swarming around the goalmouth. When Gwenaelle Dutel put France 2-0 ahead with a field goal on the half-hour, the under-21s again came back at them, Cindy Botha being twice denied by goalkeeper Annabelle Got before the change-over.


The French seemed content to defend their lead instead of increasing it and the South Africans began to put them under pressure, forcing three short corners in succession and scoring with the third in their 59th minute through Cindy Brown.

From then on the South Africans camped in the French half of the field and were rewarded in the 68th minute when a free hit taken by Marcelle Keet was deflected into the goals by Dorothy.

The knock-out goal in the last minute was engineered by the hard-working Kathleen Taylor whose perfect pass found Danielle Forward unmarked in the circle and she swept the ball past the goalkeeper.

The teams play their third and deciding match at the AB Jackson Stadium in Pietermaritzburg today at 6pm.

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