{"id":90524,"date":"2026-02-16T18:24:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T16:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=90524"},"modified":"2026-02-16T18:24:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T16:24:39","slug":"basetsana-miss-out-on-fifa-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=90524","title":{"rendered":"Basetsana miss out on FIFA World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_90223\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-90223\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-90223\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/u20-SA-Womens-Team-2026-400x290.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"290\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-90223\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Basetsana&#8217;s starting team against Ghana in the first leg of their u20 FIFA World Cup qualifiers on Sunday, 8 February. Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/southafricanfootballassociation\"><strong>SAFA on Facebook<\/strong><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The <strong>South African u20 national women&#8217;s team<\/strong>, known as <em><strong>Basetsana<\/strong><\/em>, has been eliminated from the <strong>FIFA World Cup<\/strong> qualifiers following a 0-1 defeat to <strong>Ghana<\/strong> at the <strong>Mbombela Stadium<\/strong> on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>In the first leg of the third round qualifiers, <a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/basetsana-battles-hard-for-a-resilient-draw-against-ghana\/\"><strong>Basetsana journeyed to Ghana and fought hard for a 2-2 draw<\/strong><\/a> at the <strong>Accra Sports Stadium<\/strong> on 8 February.<\/p>\n<p>During the return leg in Nelspruit, the visitors outperformed the hosts.<\/p>\n<p>The first half concluded without any goals as both teams vigorously chased an opener, yet neither succeeded in breaking the stalemate.<\/p>\n<p>In the second half, the <em><strong>Black Princesses<\/strong><\/em> were reenergised. They dictated the pace of the contest, and their persistence was rewarded when <strong>Priscilla Mensah<\/strong> netted a goal three minutes after the hour mark to break open the deadlock.<\/p>\n<p>Following the visitors&#8217; goal, Basetsana battled tirelessly to regain their footing in the match, but Ghana&#8217;s defence remained resolute.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Ghana maintained their 1-0 advantage until the final whistle, which gave them a 3-2 win on aggregate and a place in the next phase of the competition.<\/p>\n<p>For South Africa, though, their FIFA World Cup dream is over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African u20 national women&#8217;s team, known as Basetsana, has been eliminated from the FIFA World Cup qualifiers following a 0-1 defeat to Ghana at the Mbombela Stadium on Saturday. In the first leg of the third round qualifiers, Basetsana journeyed to Ghana and fought hard for a 2-2 draw at the Accra Sports [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":90223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/90223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}