WAFCON 2024: South Africa Coach Expresses Fatigue Concerns Ahead of Super Falcons Semifinal Clash
Desiree Ellis, the head coach of South Africa’s Banyana Banyana, has expressed worries over her team’s weariness and preparation time before their eagerly awaited matchup with the Nigerian Super Falcons in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) semifinals.
On Tuesday, July 22, 2025, the Super Falcons of Nigeria and the Banyana Banyana of South Africa will play their semifinal match at Stade Larbi Zaouli in Casablanca.
Ellis is concerned about her team’s exhausting quarterfinal match-up with the Senegal women’s national team, when they played for 120 minutes before winning 4-1 on penalties.
In addition, Banyana Banyana had to travel from Oujda to Casablanca, where the Super Falcons had been stationed during the competition, and thus had one fewer day to prepare for the semifinals than Nigeria.
Ellis believes her players might not have had enough time to recover for the Tuesday match after her squad had to rely on penalties to advance over a resolute Senegal team and reach the round of four.
“We are not thinking about Nigeria right now; we will think about the next match tomorrow [on Sunday]. Let’s celebrate what we have done,” Ellis told the media after the match on Saturday (via Sowetan Live).
“We won’t overthink anything because we want to celebrate what we have done, and that’s what we do. As a technical team, we are already standing on one side talking about how we are going to plan and how we are going to prepare because 120 minutes with a day less to prepare and a day to travel takes a lot.”
She also gave Banyana credit for their tenacity against Senegal and expressed her optimism that they will do the same against Nigeria on Tuesday in the eagerly awaited semifinal match.
“We have been practising penalties, and we knew who our kickers were going to be, and that’s why we made the changes we made. We always knew that Andile could save one or two; she had done that before.
“This was our first penalty shoot-out victory in the WAFCON; we lost it in the 2006 and 2018 finals. I don’t have enough words to describe this team—the resilience, the courage, the never-say-die attitude, and the willingness to fight for each other.
“No matter what they threw at us, we were able to withstand it,” the coach added.
