2023 Women's World Cup: Ellis Highlights Reason For Banyana Banyana Loss To Netherlands

2023 Women's World Cup: Ellis Highlights Reason For Banyana Banyana Loss To Netherlands

Sampson Adedeji

Following their defeat to the Netherlands on Sunday, the head coach of the Banyana Banayan of South Africa Desire Ellis has explained the reason for their defeat, BSNSports.com.ng reports.

The African champions suffered a 2-0 defeat to the Europeans and the coach pointed to injury as one of the reasons for the defeat.

 â€œLosing Mbamba [Bambanani Mbane] and Jermaine [Seoposenwe] in the first half also didn’t help the way we set up. I think it was huge. They’re very instrumental in the way that we play. Especially Jermaine with what she brings to the team.

“But we brought the squad of 23, the others that came up [Wendy Shongwe and Tiisetso Makhubela] they did really well. Unfortunately, that is part of the sport. You might pick up an injury.

“To win the game, we needed to score more goals. We had a lot of opportunities especially in the first half, to kill the game because we knew the quality side the Netherlands are.

"We knew that even though we conceded from a set piece, the chances that we created should have put us out of sight. A decision or a goal, we could’ve been speaking a different story.

“In the end, the legs were not there anymore for us to keep pushing for the duration of the game. But I said they [Banyana Banyana] are going to be in the game and they [Netherlands] know we going to be here", she concluded.