Since their arrival in Morocco ahead of the start of the 2022 TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, the Sasol-sponsored Banyana Banyana have been based in Rabat – where they played four matches.
They have now changed their base camp and moved some 63km away to Mohammedia – a port city on the west coast of Morocco between Casablanca and Rabat in the region of Casablanca-Settat.
This is where they do battle with Zambia in the semi-finals of the tournament, with the winner standing a greater chance of lifting their maiden continental title.
The other last four clash will be contested by the defending champions Nigeria against the hosts, Morocco.
South Africa booked their FIFA Women’s World Cup ticket thanks a Jermaine Seoposenwe strike against Tunisia.
Desiree Ellis’ charges have now scored seven goals in four matches, but she is well aware that it could have been more.
She was quick to point out, however, that the main objective was to qualify for the World Cup, and it is mission accomplished.
“We stopped playing at some point, but we kept encouraging them to play. The good thing is that we kept creating chances, but as they game went on, I think they felt the pressure and we tried to calm them down,” Ellis told SAFA.net.
“We made elementary mistakes, I don’t know how many chances we could have just rolled [onto the net], and we didn’t take them. I want to see the stats of those chances because they were so clear-cut. At the end of the day it was not a good performance, but we showed a lot of grit. I thought Refiloe Jane and Lebohang Ramalepe came through really good for us after not being part of training for a while. They gave us a lot. But at the end we are going to the World Cup hey.”
Banyana Banyana and Zambia meet on Monday night (18 July) at 10pm South African time.
By Matlhomola Morake
