Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis maintains that qualifying for this year’s Paris Olympic Games is the only missing piece of the puzzle for her team. The South African senior women’s team is in camp preparing for the third round of the qualifiers against Tanzania.
The first match will be played in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, on Friday afternoon. The second leg will be played at the Mbombela Stadium four days later.
The team leaves for Tanzania in the early hours of Tuesday.
The current crop of Banyana Banyana players has been punching above the weight in recent years. The team has consistently qualified for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. In 2022, Banyana Banyana won their first continental title and qualified for their second FIFA World Cup in a row.
They then made history, beating the highly-ranked Italy to become the first senior national team to reach the second round of a World Cup.
Coach Desiree Ellis says the only missing piece of the puzzle for the current crop of players is to qualify for the Olympic Games.
“There were a lot of things that we wanted to do. One of them was to win the Wafcon which we did. Going to the World Cup and getting out of the group stages into the last 16 which we did. I think the one thing is obviously the Olympic games not having gone in 2020. It’s a big objective for the team. It’s not about one individual. It’s about the whole team. We have one goal and that is to get to the Olympics. But it’s all about this one game, but we are not going to look further than that. We focus at task at hand; we don’t want to speak about whose next at the Olympics. but we just want to speak about Tanzania.”
The last time Banyana qualified for the Olympics was for the 2016 Rio Games after making their debut four years earlier in London.
Ellis says the disappointment of failing to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, still hurts. The team lost out to Botswana in a penalty shoot-out.
“But very important to have that core group, very important to have that senior group as it may be, because they always lift everything in the team and not having gone in 2020. I think that’s the biggest objective, not just for us as a team, but especially, for those ones that missed out in 2020 that have been in 2016. So, it’s really important that they also bring the experience. It is going to be invaluable,” Ellis added.
SAFA President Danny Jordaan admits that the away tie against Tanzania in Dar es Salaam will be a tough encounter for Banyana.
“Tanzania is one of the emerging teams on the continent and we wish Banyana all the best. It’s going to be a difficult game, but we believe in this team. This team has shown over a period of time that they can produce when the pressure is on.”
The second leg will be played at the Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga.
“Supporters of Banyana Banyana are not only in Johannesburg, but they are also in Mbombela, they are in Cape Town, they are in Durban. You have seen with Bafana as well, where we try to rotate the team so that we get other provinces that opportunity. But I think, as well, having consulted with the coach, it’s also about the conditions. We need to ensure that the conditions can favour our team other than a team coming from Dar es Salaam that is closer to the coast,” says Lydia Monyepao, SAFA CEO.
Team captain Refiloe Jane will not travel to Dar es Salaam due to an injury. The team will be led by star player Thembi Kgatlana and she will be joined by four other overseas-based players in the squad.
