Coach Desiree Ellis disappointed after the loss
By Kopano Dibakwane
The South African Senior Women’s Football team, Banyana Banyana, will not be part of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games following a goalless draw with Nigeria in the second leg of a qualifying match played at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Tshwane on Tuesday night, 9 April.
Banyana came into the match trailing from a 1-0 defeat which they suffered in the first leg at Abuja, Nigeria, last week.
Nigeria kept Banyana at bay throughout the first half, refusing to offer the South African team a chance to make any shots on target.
This signalled a struggle by Banyana Banyana to turn their fortunes around, as they only needed one goal to equalise in order to at least take the game into a penalty shootout.
Banyana Banyana Head Coach, Desiree Ellis, introduced Hilda Magala and Sinoxolo Cesane to replace Nomvula Kgole and Noxolo Cesane, but her substitutions didn’t yield any tangible results, in terms of goal opportunities.
Ellis said she was disappointed by the results, even though she changed the formation slightly with the hope of attaining an early goal.
“ We knew that coming into this game we needed to score. We also knew that we needed to score as early as possible because the longer the game went on, we became desperate.
“ We did not go as forward as much as we wanted to in the first half, made a couple of changes in the second half and threw the kitchen sink at them. Unfortunately that elusive goal did not go in and for that we are very disappointed,” said Ellis.
Banyana Banyana’s loss did not dampen the mood of the girls as they celebrated Lebohang Ramalepe’s 100th cap for the national team.
Nigeria will be one of the African teams to take part in the 2024 Olympic Games.
