The future of Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis might be uncertain, but she has detailed what the team needs to do to improve going forward.
Banyana had a poor outing at the recently concluded Women’s Africa Cup of Nations as they relinquished their title and finished fourth.
Consequently, this put Ellis’ future with the team in serious jeopardy, especially given allegations that she had been working without a contract since 2022. Ellis started working with the national teams eleven years ago when she served as Vera Pauw’s assistant coach in 2014.
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She then temporarily took over the reins from Pauw in 2016 before she was finally appointed as the head coach in 2018 to date.
During her stint, the 62-year-old has achieved the improbable, including winning Banyana’s maiden WAFCON and qualifying for back-to-back World Cups. However, she was unable to defend the crown in Morocco recently due to an underwhelming performance, including losing to eventual champions Nigeria in the semi-final.
So, where to go for Ellis?
Will she resolve her contractual issues with Safa and stay put to ensure the team qualifies for the 2027 World Cup through next year’s WAFCON?
“No comment!” said Ellis during her post-match press conference on Friday following the 4-3 loss to Ghana on penalties after the match ended 1-1 in regulation time.
“Because whatever it is that I am going to say right now, it’s going to be taken out of context anyway. So, I’d rather say ‘no comment’.”
While she is tight-lipped about the direction of her future, she has pointed out that lack of time to prepare for their title defence led to their shortcomings.
“I don’t want to make excuses, but we had more time in 2022 to prepare. Our league started late, so we have to consider all those factors,” Ellis said.
“We have to consider how we’d go this tournament – so that’s why we made sure that we rotated players for freshness. We had four injured in the stands and five outfield substitutes. So, that’s how it goes, but we’ll go back and look at what we can do better.
“In 2018, we looked at how we played and what we were doing, and we did things a little bit differently in 2022.”
Banyana blew hot and cold after the 2022 WAFCON. They reached the World Cup last sixteen for the first time in 2023, missed out on the Olympics and have now relinquished their title.
So, as Ellis tries to map the way forward she knows that she has to usher in a new era, and integrate some new players into the team.
There were glimpses of a new dawn at WAFCON as Ronnel Donnelly made her international debut and got to share the pitch with her now retired idol Jermaine Seoposenwe.
Ellis, though, stresses that the failure of the junior national teams to qualify for major tournaments is what will hinder their progress going forward.
“Like we said, the continent is like a gold-mine, so everyone has got to step up because there are a lot of investments,” Ellis explained.
“You have seen the investments in the other countries. We need to step up or we are going to be left behind. We have the talent, but our youth teams need to qualify for tournaments.
“So, that’s the experience that other countries get – when the youth teams go to these tournaments. Ghana, Tanzania, and Nigeria have been doing it.
“Nigeria have been doing it at every level. So, when you see those players coming through with that experience (it becomes very crucial).”
