Banyana Banyana reached a sixth Women’s African Cup of Nations (Wafcon) final and are now desperate to finally claim a maiden title in Morocco.
Coach Desiree Ellis’s team has been flying the flag high at the continental tournament this month and beat Zambia on 1–0 on Tuesday night to set up Saturday night showdown with hosts Morocco in a duel to be crowned the queens of African football.
South Africa have played in five previous continental finals, including in the last tournament in 2018 which they lost to Nigeria.
But with qualification to next year’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand confirmed with a top-four finish, coach Ellis is determined to go one better.
The Hanover Park legend says: “Our two objectives were to qualify for the World Cup and get to the final.
“We know that many have been in this position and we want to go one better.
“It is a big celebration now for those that have been with us for two successive World Cups.”
Banyana Banyana through to the final of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations https://t.co/YQfD5CGXBG
— Banyana_Banyana (@Banyana_Banyana) July 18, 2022
Banyana won Monday night’s game thanks to forward Linda Motlhalo’s injury-time penalty - a spotkick awarded after a VAR review.
The coach adds: “VAR and the match officials gave it. And we say thank you, put it away… and now we’re off the final.”
After that bit of geluk, the boss lady called on her span to give alles in the final.
Our Team Manager has many objectives for this camp and one of them is to finish the #TotalEnergiesWAFCON2022 camp as a good dancer.
— Banyana_Banyana (@Banyana_Banyana) July 20, 2022
This is how it’s going so far ⬇️ with our HOD trying to teach her some moves.😂#LiveTheImpossible #BehindTheScenesWithBanyana pic.twitter.com/FqoBrOq5OH
She warns: “We need to up our game to stay with the African game.
“Morocco have fantastic home support and have a really good coach, but we must bring our A-plus game to be able to get the gold medal.”