The Bright Starlet’s captain,  Amy Lasu Luate, has spoken about the team’s dreadful performance last year, which saw them register heavy losses in tournaments. Lasu said the team had learnt a painful lesson and would focus on improving their performance.

 “Although last year’s results ended in defeats, I have seen much improvement among us as a Bright Starlet team, and I can say we are a really good team at this time,” she said.

“[What we went through] was not something good that fans expected, [but] we have to accept it, and most importantly, there is a time for everything. As players, we took it upon ourselves as a learning process. We have learnt something, at least,” said Bright Starlet team captain said.

Although Lasu’s team is determined to put smiles on the faces of South Sudan’s female football fans, she stressed that there was still much work to be done to support the ladies moral, financial, and other needs that could keep them busy in the camp.

She said all the successful teams across the country get proper financial support from both the government and private sectors.

“We are not completely poor; we have talents in the country. However, our ladies are not encouraged in the same way that other girls in other countries are. I am glad that we have begun to recognise that our girls can be like other women.”

According to her, in other countries, public and private sectors have prioritised investing in sports, which gives their ladies a reason to vote for themselves to choose football over doing many things at once.

The captain challenged the citizens to take responsibility by extending their helping hands to support grassroots football as a means of promoting talents among the young girls.

“I am saying this out of experience that we went through. We normally have chats with opponents after every game, but their stories are different from ours when it comes to supporting for their clubs or national teams,” she recalled. 

“I am not saying we want to be like them today or tomorrow, but slowly we can make it high when the girls are supported,” Lasu stressed.

Last year was one of the most disappointing and disgraceful football calendars in Bright Starlets’ history. The games came but the results were terrible.

Games in focus

In April 2021, Bright Starlets proudly jetted to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to take on the Ethiopian women’s side, only to be beaten 3-0, which everyone accepted as a sign that the girls were learning.

The South Sudan Football Association praised the performance, terming it an improvement from the past matches.

Despite all the humiliation, the officials kept on encouraging fans not to lose hope and insisted that they were in the learning process and that one day the Bright Stars ‘would be the lions in the region’.

“A much-improved performance from the Bright Starlets today. This is only the beginning, “the association tweeted after the game.

It added: “A big thanks to all who supported us throughout the international break. Lots of lessons learned. We shall continue to stick to our vision and mission as we continue growing and developing into a team that will be unbeatable in the future. “

More miseries

Another trip came around the corner on September 20, 2021, when South Sudan’s Senior National Women’s Team landed in South Africa to take part in the 2021 Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Women’s Championship.

The COSAFA competition brought together 14 nations from Southern Africa under a single umbrella, intending to develop the game of football in the region.

Although it was their first time participating in the COSAFA Women’s Championship, many fans were hopeful that the Bright Starlets would do something better than just a representation.

The Bright Starlets were led by the SSFA Vice President, Charles Odwar, and other senior members of the SSFA.

The Bright Starlets were drawn in group B with Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Samia Suluhu’s (Tanzania).

On September 29, 2021, the team started their game against Botswana and were thrashed 7-0. This was the greatest humiliation and one of the worst defeats in the competition.

They also lost 3-0 against a Tanzanian women’s team and subsequently 2-1 against Zimbabwe.

The team ended the campaign winless and conceded 12 goals while scoring only once.

After ending the COSAFA winless, the ladies were given another test against the Kenyan side to participate in the African Women’s Cup of Nations Qualifier 2022 AWCONQ, which also ended in tears.

The Bright Starlets were hammered in all the two games by the Harambee Starlets of Kenya, 8-0, and 7-1, for a total of 15-1 in aggregate.

However, despite the unsatisfactory struggles, Mr Udwar again echoed that the ladies had learned a lot.

“Being the first competitive games for these women, I believe they have benefited a lot, and next time they will do better than this as they prepare for more games to come in the future,” Mr Udwar stressed.

“AWCONQ 2022, and COSAFA competitions are big competitions, and it was a big lesson for our ladies to take from there and move forward,” he added.