WATCH: Fan pays poetic tribute to Banyana after their heroics

Of Banyana Banyana’s heartwarming heroics, “exceptionalism” and other stuff in-between…

I don’t know whether it’s Linda ‘Mimi’ Motlhalo (10)’s deft and all-knowing feign before the trap, and how she leaves her opponent ‘dead’.

She releases a pass, replete with wrapped foot, across to her teammate. Or the subsequent “backheel from Woolworths” (as someone so aptly dubbed it elsewhere), which led to the inch-perfect defence-splitter that made the well-taken goal?

But this clip from the first game against Nigeria is, for me, Banyana Banyana’s collective CV, in one fell swoop. See clip below:

This precise moment crystallises the astonishing quality, confidence and indomitable spirit of this team.

Their orchestration of passes has become the hallmark of their game. And the manner in which they’ve managed to toy their way around pedigreed opponents, often opting to find one another in good spaces instead of seeking individual glory, has been a sight to behold.

Teamwork personified. Playstation game stuff. Truth be told, we’re so used to humiliation or, at best, pedestrian performances by our national football sides.

Very few expected Banyana to go all the way. Myself included. It’s such against-all-odds heroics, in the midst of so much going so painfully haywire all around us, that fuel what some refer to as South Africa’s “exceptionalism.”

We’re all Denzel Washington sauntering away in slo-mo while the world behind us explodes. Invincible.

Personally, I can’t be blamed for feeling like a Utopian world-beater over the past few days. And I know I’m not alone.

But we’ll soon need to get real. The struggles synonymous with women’s football are well-documented.

While it’s an important and affirming victory for women and girl-children to draw inspiration from, this moment should serve as a wake-up call for the authorities.

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It’s an indictment on the establishment that this team has fared this well in spite of all that we know about the lack of funding and overall support for women’s football.

One hopes this infinitely proud moment will bring about positive change in the women’s game. Of course, whether it will, is another story altogether.

For now, we’ll bask in this glorious moment. Desire Ellis, her technical team, and their brave bevy of beauties must take a bow.

They must then be paid what’s due to them. After that they must be sat down and asked to take us through how they did it.

In front of Bafana Bafana, who must take note so that they, too, can one day say “we did it” like the the Fabulous Barker Boys nearly three decades ago.

But yeah, this place that we call home… And her weird wonderful people… can warm your heart and leave you utterly, pleasantly surprised sometimes. Can the FIFA Women’s World Cup start already!