Desiree Ellis, Banyana Banyana coach during the Banyana Banyana Squad Announcement for Jamaica Friendlies at SABC Studios Auckland Park, in Johannesburg on 21 November 2024.
Phakamisa Lensman/BackpagePix
Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis dedicated their 3-2 defeat to Jamaica in a friendly, played in the early hours of Tuesday in Montego Bay, to “the people back home”, saying they lost with pride.
For the better part of the game, we were in control… even when we conceded, we were in control but when the decision doesn’t go your way, there’s nothing you can do but I think the people back home were up, this one is for them
Desiree Ellis
Even so, Ellis wasn’t too pleased with the officiating as Banyana suffered their second defeat to the Reggae Girlz, who had thumped them 3-0 in the first friendly at the same venue two days earlier, where Manchester City superstars Khadija Shaw was too hot to handle, scoring a brace.
“For the better part of the game, we were in control… even when we conceded, we were in control but when the decision doesn’t go your way, there’s nothing you can do but I think the people back home were up, this one is for them,” Ellis said.
“We know we disappointed them as we couldn’t give them a result in the previous game but this one is for them… we might have lost, but we lost with pride.”
“We knew we were better than the previous game even though we brought a young team. We had nine players coming in since the Denmark-England tour and seven started the first match and we made a couple of changes again for the second one.”
The Banyana coach didn’t hide that she wasn’t happy with the officiating in Jamaica. Banyana used the tour to prepare for next year’s Wafcon, where they are grouped with Ghana, Mali and Tanzania, in Pool C of the competition to be staged in Morocco again.
“I am a bit disappointed not with our performance though but with the decision that didn’t go our way, I felt should have gone our way. The assistant referee had her flag up and suddenly she put her flag down… two contagious issues with penalties that should have, could have been, but other than that I am proud,” Ellis said.
On Tuesday morning, SA scored first via Linda Motlhalo in the 19th minute, before Vyan Sampson levelled matters two minutes before the hour mark.
The Reggae Girlz added their second of the day five minutes later via Drew Spence with Kyla Jay McKenna scoring the goal that proved the final nail in the coffin for SA in the 76th minute. Amogelang Motau netted Banyana’s second goal in the 90th minute.
