We feel we failed the nation, says Banyana Banyana coach
After two years of progress and triumph, SA’S women face a heartbreaking setback as the Super Falcons dash their Olympic hopes. By
South Africa’s senior women’s soccer side has been on an upward trajectory over the past two years. In this time, Banyana Banyana won their first Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) title, in 2022, and complemented this overdue achievement by becoming the first senior South African soccer side to qualify for the knockouts of a Fifa World Cup.
The players and technical team had hoped to add the title of Olympians to their impressive CVS. They failed in this endeavour after old foes Nigeria edged Banyana Banyana 1-0 on aggregate over two legs of cagey football from two teams that have tons of respect for each other.
Try as they might, South Africa just could not find a way past the Super Falcons. Their normally troublesome forwards, such as Thembi Kgatlana and Jermaine Seoposenwe, were comfortably kept away from seriously threatening the Nigerian goalmouth over both legs.
“We tried everything that we could. Unfortunately, that goal would not come,” coach Desiree Ellis reflected after the game.
South Africa’s skipper, Refiloe Jane, said: “We played much better than we did in the first leg. It’s just unfortunate that we could not get the much-needed goals.
“We still struggle to score goals. It’s something that we need to work on, [being effective in] the final third,” the Italy-based midfielder reflected.
“Other than that, we need to pick our heads up and continue to work hard. There are still more tournaments to qualify for – the World Cup, the Wafcon, to defend our title,” she added.
Massive disappointment
During their qualification journey for the 2020 Games in Tokyo, Banyana Banyana were ousted by neighbours Botswana in the second round of the qualifiers.
As a result, they failed to build on the momentum of reaching their first Games in 2012, and their second participation at the multisport tournament in 2016.
After their ascendancy over the past two
years, booking their ticket to
Paris for the fast-approaching 2024 Olympics would have bolstered the legacy of this Banyana Banyana cohort. Instead, they have to pick up the pieces and keep moving.
“When the final whistle went [on 9 April], it was a huge disappointment, heartache. This group has worked so hard to be where it is today,” captain Jane lamented.
“It’s been a long journey to get to where we are. And to get such a disappointment at the last hurdle is so hurtful. But we will lift our heads and we will try again, like we’ve done before,” the 31-year-old said.
As for four-time African women’s coach of the year Ellis, sitting in the dugout as a head coach at the Olympics remains elusive. But she was present in 2016, as an assistant to Vera Pauw. She took over as head coach not long after that tournament.
Asked how she feels about missing out on yet another Games as head coach, and whether she still sees herself in the hot seat when the next opportunity to qualify for the Olympics arises, the 61-year-old said: “It’s never about me. It’s always about the team first. That [qualifying for the Olympics] is one thing, as a group, we haven’t done.”
On whether she’ll still be here for the next Games, she said: “I can’t give you an answer about that far ahead right now.
“It’s a big disappointment. Not just for us but for everyone involved in women’s football. It will take a while to recover from this.”
The coach, who cut a more frustrated and anxious figure with each passing minute of the second leg at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Wednesday, said the general feeling from Banyana Banyana was that they had failed the nation by not booking their ticket to Paris.
“It’s difficult to explain [how we feel] because of the expectations that we have of ourselves, and the country has of us. We felt we disappointed everybody. We felt that if we had scored one goal, we might have scored a second or a third,” Ellis, a former Banyana Banyana captain, told journalists.
“I don’t think you can explain disappointment. It’s very difficult to explain. But you hurt so badly inside that you don’t know what to say.”
Africa’s pride
Had Banyana Banyana managed to navigate past the Nigerians in the fourth and final round of Olympic qualification for African nations, they would have been thrown into group C.
This group has some heavyweights in global women’s soccer, including 2023 World Cup winners Spain, South American champions Brazil, and Japan.
The Super Falcons of Nigeria, playing in their fifth Olympics and their first since Beijing in 2008, will have to work doubly hard to make it to the knockout stages of the 12-team tournament.
The 12 teams will be split into three groups of four. The top two from each group, along with the best two third-placed teams, will reach the knockout phase.
Zambia will be Africa’s other representative after they beat the more fancied Morocco 3-2 on aggregate to seal their spot in France. The Copper Queens are also in a daunting group. They are in group B with the USA, Germany and 2023 World Cup semifinalists Australia.
South Africans will have no soccer team to follow at the Games. Along with Banyana Banyana’s failure to book a ticket to Paris, the men’s U23 side were also unsuccessful, having been eliminated by Congo-brazzaville in 2023.