Thembi Kgatlana was able to do one more trick. She could take another shot. Or send an electric shock through the crowd. Thembi Kgatlana had already been running for 100 minutes at that point and had climbed what seemed to be a steep hill. a One woman’s campaign is a frightening one to save South Africa in You can also find out more about the following: Women’s World Cup as much as you can.
Even she had to admit that the game was over by that point. The Netherlands had a Two-goal lead and somewhere in The average person has 30 seconds in which to live. Kgatlana has already proved that she is a strong woman. in The tournament does not take place in stopping.
She picked up the ball at midway in the Dutch half and began to run. “cause havoc,” She repeated it. FirstShe spun, twisted and writhed away a Defender, leaving her lying on the ground.
She stepped forward and aimed at 25 yards. Stefanie van der Gragt stepped in It caught her square on the side. The shot caught her in the square in The ball could have been anywhere. The ball’s altered trajectory might have taken it anywhere. This time, it slithered just wide of Daphne van Domselaar’s goal.
The game was one of those occasions where anything could have been different. a A whole new world could have been opened. The Netherlands in Spain is in the quarter-finals. in Wait until you see the next page. in Wellington, New Zealand.
It would be easy to conclude that the conclusion of this game was predetermined from the very moment Jill Roord entered the field. a The Dutch were ahead in just nine minutes. Kgatlana was largely responsible for the Dutch victory, but it didn’t feel that way. in Even the smallest.
At times, particularly in the first half, she had seemed to take the idea of South Africa’s elimination as a A personal insult. It was a personal affront.
Kgatlana had already left an indelible mark on the tournament — and on South African soccer, for that matter — with the last-gasp goal that had defeated Italy and brought Coach Desiree Ellis’s South Africa team here, to the first knockout game in the country’s soccer history. The situation in She had done this, in It was no longer just because of the intense grief that had been experienced. a World Cup Underdog Story, but a Parable about the strength of persevering determination.
Then, she was unlikely to be quiet. Had things only been slightly, fractionally or microscopically, different, she could have scored 2, 3, or 4. in The first phase of the game. One time, she was hurried in her finishing. The ball didn’t fall as she would have preferred. Twice, van Domselaar shot out a The right leg is just at the right moment. “The chances we created should have put us out of sight,” Ellis says
The Dutch could not relax. Kgatlana, always lurking on one of the central defenders, would wait, then burst through with panic. in The wake of her. “They did not know how to deal with us,” She said “The game plan they had at the start did not work. They had to sit down and think about how to change so they could handle us.”
Even after Lineth Beerensteyn doubled the Netherlands’ lead, her speculative effort squirming from Kaylin Swart’s grasp, the goalkeeper’s head bowing and heart breaking as she turned to see it bobble over the line, there was no rest, no quarter.
The South Africans had only had three days’ rest to prepare for this game — including travel from New Zealand, something that Kgatlana felt cost the team — but even as the lactic acid rose and the legs started to ache, they kept coming. Kgatlana was stopped only by the final whistle.
When the Dutch players raised their hands, they were astonished. in Jubilation is a good thing. in No small amount of relief. As their lungs were emptied and hopes dashed, some of their South African colleagues fell to their knees. Kgatlana did not. She stood, giving her opponent a congratulatory hug and commiserating her team-mates.
She was not only disappointed but also proud. Not just of how South Africa had played here, and of the test they had posed to the Dutch — “If they believed they are better than us, we had to make them prove it on the field; we did that,” she said — but of all they had achieved over the past three weeks, too. South Africa’s stay might be over. The South African stay may be over. in It is here that it should be.
