Refiloe Jane discusses Banyana Banyana's FIFA World Cup objectives

The showpiece taking place in Australia and New Zealand gets underway between the latter and Norway on Thursday morning and will be preceded by the opening ceremony at 07h00am (SA time).

Banyana will commence their campaign against Sweden on Sunday morning, and captain Jane has outlined their targets for their second appearance on the World Cup stage.

“The goal for South Africa in this world cup is to do better than we did in the previous encounter, which is now to advance to the next stage. We know it will not be easy, we know we have to fight for each and every ball, fight for each and every point to make sure that we get that advantage,” Jane told the FIFA media team.

Coming up against the third-ranked women's team in the world, the midfielder knows the magnitude of the challenge that awaits them but she has vowed to leave everything on the pitch to make South Africans proud.

“Playing Sweden in our first game will be a big challenge. The qualities that they have as individuals and as a team, they come in with a lot of experience. They’ve played I think in every tournament that women’s football has to offer,” she added.

“So, we are not gonna take it easy, we are not gonna take it lightly. We know it’s gonna be our most challenging game of our group games. But we have prepared, we will give it our all. We’ll make sure that we make South Africans proud all over the world and try to get a good result.”

Also in Banyana's Group G are Italy and Argentina, who will undoubtedly test the African champions' adaptability and try force them to play without the ball.

Jane admits they will have to make some tactical tweaks to mitigate any risks of being unable to play their usual possession-based game.

“Tactics coming into the world cup will change a bit knowing that we are playing European teams. So, their style of football is very different to what we experience in the African continent,” Jane explained.

“So, we know that as a ball playing team, it might not be easy for us in this tournament but we have it prepared, we have it covered, we know the tactics that we are gonna put into place in making sure that it will get us the results that we are looking for.”