Bafana’s Williams gets his flowers from Baloyi
Imagine you’re Bafana Bafana’s goalkeeper, and you delight Brian Baloyi? Check out what Spiderman has said about Ronwen Williams.
Bafana Bafana fans have been repeating a particular name all day today: Ronwen Williams.
The 32-year-old remarkably saved four out of five penalties against Cape Verde in the Afcon 2023 quarter-final game last Saturday night in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast.
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The game ended goalless after 90 minutes and 30 minutes of extra time, where Williams delivered a staggering save to deny Gilson Tavares a winner in the 88th minute.
Bafana went on to win the penalty kicks 2-1, a very unusual score in the shootouts right? Well, no goalkeeper in a major tournament has ever saved four out of five penalty before.
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Coach Hugo Broos admitted that the tension of the match caused him to age a few more years, but Man of the Match Williams saved the night.
“Let’s say six hours ago I was 71, now I’m 75,” Broos said as quoted by iDiskiTimes.
“It was a stressful game, certainly the penalties. You know what happens when you have to take penalties, it’s a very special situation for the players,” the Bafana mentor added.
“Sometimes you do a little game after training, taking penalties and nearly no player misses a penalty but you see today what happened, not only with us but also the players from Cape Verde. That means, we can be happy, but players want to get a penalty. We were, not lucky because we had a very good keeper today. If you can save four penalties, this is not luck anymore. You can save one, but four, this is not luck.
“He did not only that, he saved us two minutes before the end with a player that was alone infront of him. Yes, he was Man of the match. I think we could choose nobody else, because he is really Man of the Match,” the Bafana tactician concluded.
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BRIAN BALOYI SALUTES RONWEN WILLIAMS
According to the former Bafana Bafana, Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns number one, Williams in the king of penalty kicks.
“What a performance by Ronwen Williams and the boys but a special mention must go to captain fantastic,” said Baloyi via Instagram.
“By far Mzansi’s (South Africa) best penalty saver of all time and arguably one of the best in the world,” the Alexandra-born legend added.
Meanwhile, the Gqeberha-born Sundowns keeper will lead Bafana in the semifinals against Nigeria on Wednesday at 19:00.
You can find more articles from Siseko Gwegwe here.