Photo Courtesy - SA Sports Facebook page.
Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis has admitted it will not be easy for the South African side to defend the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
The African champions have been drawn in Group C where they will face Ghana, Mali and Tanzania of the event scheduled to take place between 5-26 July 2025 in Morocco. The tournament was supposed to be played last year but it was postponed to 2025 as it clashed with the Olympic Games held in Paris from July 6-11 August 2024.
“The year of the WAFCON, it's gonna be extremely difficult to defend the title but possible. While preparing for the previous WAFCON, we selected the squad for every eventuality. We had Covid in camp, we had the big injury to Thembi but yet people stepped up,” Ellis said as quoted by SABC Sports.
“It's gonna take something similar, a superhuman effort where everybody plays their part. We are a team that always creates chances but we have to become more clinical in front of goal and very tight at the back to make sure that we are the team that comes out on top in every game.
“But it's gonna take a huge, huge effort from everyone in terms of getting everything right and making sure that we select the right personnel because that's going to be key.
“We have to be at the absolute best but also in a very superb condition because it's gonna take a superhuman effort to win the WAFCON, with everyone stepping up around us and we have to make sure that we're the team that comes out on top.”
South Africa is the highest ranked country in the world in their group on 50 and second on the continent followed by Ghana (66, 5), Mali (81, 9) and Tanzania (145, 27) while Tanzanians will be making their second appearance in the competition since 2010 when it was held in South Africa.
Comments