By Wale Mustapha
Head Coach of South Africa women’s national team, Desiree Ellis has expressed disappointment for her side’s failure to secure qualification to the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Banyana Banyana were held to a goaless draw by Super Falcons in the second leg of final qualifying round on Tuesday in Pretoria making Nigeria to edge the contest 1-0 on aggregate.
Banyana looked flat and struggled to break down the Super Falcons defence during the match and Ellis could not hide her frustrations after seeing her miss out on the Olympics for the second consecutive time.
“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, the more desperate we would become,” Ellis told The Sowetan.
“We didn’t start well. We changed the formation slightly because we needed to score and we went with three up front. They got the chance early on and that’s the only opportunity they got in the half.
“But we didn’t go forward as much as we wanted in the first half. We made a couple of changes in the second half and threw the kitchen sink at them unfortunately, that elusive goal didn’t go in.
“And for that, we are very disappointed. We also know the fans are disappointed, but I think we can be very proud of this team. They gave it their best shot.”