Desiree Ellis: "I think we gave it our all." Banyana Banyana head coach shares her thoughts on the recent tournament

Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis shared her thoughts on the recent WAFCON, where her team reached the semifinals.

Details: On July 28, 2025, the South African women's national team returned home after spending over a month in Morocco, competing in the CAF Women's Africa Cup of Nations.

Unfortunately, Ellis's squad missed out on the medals, losing the third-place match to Ghana after being defeated by Nigeria in the semifinals.

Nevertheless, in Ellis's opinion, everything unfolded as anticipated:

"As defending champions, we knew that every match we played would feel like a cup final, and that's exactly how it turned out. I think we gave it everything we had. Sometimes, when another team simply does something better than you, you have to acknowledge it.

But you learn to deal with those situations, especially in matches against Nigeria, and especially in the dying minutes of the game. It's a pity that the (Salgado) injury happened at that moment, and if you look at the injury and how it occurred, I think emotionally it was really tough. It affected a lot of the players. We tried to calm them down, but that's not something you can do in two or three minutes.

In the end, they weren't fully focused, or rather, it affected them emotionally. But, as I said, if we had scored that goal — the kind of ball that takes ages to cross the goal line — we might be having a different conversation right now. It's those little, tiny moments, I think, in the final third, where better decision-making could have allowed us to score a few times." Ellis said.

It is reported that the entire Banyana Banyana staff will take a couple of days off before resuming preparations for their upcoming matches.

Reminder: Well done! Three Banyana Banyana players included in the CAF Women's Africa Cup of Nations Best XI