South Africa- On Saturday, the South African Football team finished 3rd place in the CAF u23 Africa Cup of National tournament with a 3-1 win over host Country, Senegal in Darkar, securing a spot at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Goal keeper Jody February, saved one penalty during the match and another 3 in the penalty shoot out . He goes on to say, “I thought if I save the one in the game then we are going to Rio and lady luck was also on our side, God Almighty was with us and here we are, we are going to Rio."
“I am over the moon, I don’t know how to explain this feeling. I would like to give thanks to the Almighty, to my teammates, the technical staff for believing in us. Throughout the tournament we were down but not out, we came back stronger and we showed why we are here, that we are not here by fluke. We showed we really wanted to go to Rio.”
Both the South Africa's men and women’s national teams will be represented at the Olympics for the first time in history, as Banyana Banyana had already qualified for the global showpiece.
“One can put it that way that I am the hero and made the difference, but it was more of a team effort. Without the boys putting in extra effort and hard work we would not have got to the penalty shootout. All I did was my part and I am happy for South African football, we got the platform now we must grow the game,” said February.
South Africa's men now join the newly crowned Under 23 Africa Cup of Nations champions Nigeria and runners-up Algeria, at Rio 2016.
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