Banyana Banyana will be one of 12 teams vying for African glory in July 2022. In her sixth year as head coach, Desiree Ellis believes her side can finally do it.
After success in their two qualifiers for the competition, South Africa’s senior women’s football team – more affectionately known as Banyana Banyana – are vying for a maiden Africa Women’s Cup of Nations title in 2022.
During a recent interview with DM168, Ellis, who is in her sixth full year as Banyana Banyana coach after being appointed to replace respected Dutch mentor Vera Pauw in 2016, shared her thoughts on the team’s prospects when Awcon kicks off in Morocco on 2 July. “The first priority is to qualify for the World Cup. To do that we have to make the semifinals. Once we get to the semifinal we’ll go out and see if we can win. But now the tournament is completely different. There are 12 teams [up from the previous eight], which means we have to play a quarterfinal. That could be a banana skin for all of us, because you’re not sure who you’re going to get,” says Ellis.
Of course, there was major disappointment when the team failed to ride the momentum of that memorable achievement as they lost to Botswana during their bid to reach the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In 1993, Ellis was a member of the very first Banyana Banyana team as they clashed with neighbours Eswatini. “We always said that having players abroad, playing in the best leagues and at the top clubs, will make the difference. It showed at the Aisha Buhari Cup what a big difference those players made to us.”
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