Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis has reacted to the disappointing conclusion to their Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) showing, saying they must now pick themselves up.
Banyana succumbed to a 4-3 defeat on penalties to Ghana during their bronze medal match at the Larbi Zaouli Stadium in Casablanca, Morocco, on Friday night.
“We started very slowly, got into the game, and got a goal when we pressed them. But they came out guns blazing for most of the second half, especially that first 15 minutes,” Ellis said.
“We couldn’t get our foot on the ball to slow the game down, and to take control. They were just better than us in the second half, and eventually going to penalties, we always knew that we had a chance.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t win the penalty shootout this time around, so congratulations to Ghana. We live on, and we’ll then start preparing for what’s ahead.”
Moving right along
In the six matches that the South Africans have played in this tournament, they managed two wins in open play – defeating Ghana (2-0) and Mali (4-0). They drew against Tanzania (1-1), beat Senegal on penalties in the quarterfinals before going down 1-2 to Nigeria in the semi-finals.
“I think some of the games took a lot out of us, but we always knew that either getting to the final or getting to the third and 4th place playoff, we still had another game.
“But we just must pick ourselves up, these things happen in football – you’ve got to give credit to the opponents. In most situations they were better than us, and I’m not going to sugar-coat that. You’ve got to give credit where it’s due.
“We dust ourselves off and move on. We can’t look back too much. Yes, it wasn’t a great campaign, but we got into the semifinals and came very close to getting to the final, so we’ll just move on. Like every team that comes to a tournament, we had ambitions of winning it, but we didn’t get there.” Ellis added.
This was also the final appearance for South African forward Jermaine Seoposenwe in the national team colours, as she announced her retirement before the start of the tournament.
Banyana will fly out of Morocco on Sunday and are expected to land in South Africa on Monday evening.
