BANYANA Banyana’s participation in the WAFCON is over — but their dream of playing at next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil is still alive!
The 2022 African champions were knocked out of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations after suffering a painful 2-1 defeat to hosts Morocco in a tense quarter-final at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat on Saturday night.
The defeat means Banyana have missed out on the golden opportunity to qualify automatically for the 2027 World Cup.
Instead of packing their bags and ending their World Cup ambitions, Desiree Ellis’ troops must now take the long, exhausting road to Brazil through the African and FIFA play-offs.
The four teams reaching the WAFCON semi-finals will automatically book their places at the World Cup, while the other four quarter-final losers, including Banyana, will however be given another opportunity to fight for a place at the global showpiece.
The quarter-final losers will enter a further African play-off, with the two successful teams advancing to the FIFA inter-confederation play-off tournament.
From there, they will have to win their way through the final stage to secure a World Cup ticket.
For Banyana, the message is simple: the dream is bruised, but it is not dead.
MOROCCO STRIKE FIRST
South Africa had a mountain to climb after Morocco broke the deadlock in the 31st minute through Sakina Ouzraoui.
The hosts then strengthened their grip on the match shortly after the restart when Hanane Aït El Haj doubled Morocco’s lead in the 52nd minute.
But Banyana refused to lie down.
Their fightback was rewarded in the 67th minute when star forward Thembi Kgatlana found the back of the net to reduce the deficit to 2-1.
The goal gave South Africa hope of producing another famous comeback.
But Morocco stood firm and survived the late pressure to send Banyana crashing out of the tournament.
NOW FOR THE LONG ROAD
Banyana’s journey to the quarter-finals had already been a difficult one.
They opened their campaign with a shock 2-1 defeat to Tanzania, before fighting back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Côte d’Ivoire.
A narrow 1-0 victory over Burkina Faso, courtesy of Kgatlana’s goal, was enough to send them into the knockout stages.
But the reward was a quarter-final against a fired-up Moroccan side playing in front of a passionate home crowd.
Now Ellis and her players must pick themselves up quickly.
The WAFCON trophy may have slipped from their grasp, but there is something arguably just as important still within reach.
Brazil 2027.
Banyana have been knocked down.
But they are not out of the World Cup race yet.