Banyana Banyana's dream to successfully defend their WAFCON title was cut short on Tuesday evening when they fell 2-1 against rivals Nigeria in Casablanca.
The Super Falcons were rewarded for their dominance in the stroke of halftime when Rasheedat Ajibade found the back of the net from 12 yards after Bambanani Mbane had handled the ball in the danger zone.
A foul by Nigeria in the 56th minute allowed South Africa to come back courtesy of Linda Motlhalo's well taken penalty. The West African nation won it in the stoppages thanks to Michelle Alozie's fortuitous long-range effort.
Coach Desiree Ellis has now rued the serious injury suffered by Gabriela Salgado in the 84th minute as the reason why her team failed to get past Nigeria.
‘We had to calm Banyana Banyana players down'
“I think from the reactions of the players it definitely was bad, I haven’t seen the medical report yet. But from the player’s side it definitely looked really, really bad because we had to calm them down, we had to make that they refocus, which was very difficult after that moment,” Ellis told the media.
“What impacted us was the injury, as you could see how emotional the players were. I knew it was serious because I could see the players running away [after seeing it], I think that impacted them in the last minutes and I don’t think they recovered from that.
“Unfortunately, it’s part of the game and it’s so unlucky for Salgado because she missed the last WAFCON also through injury, which she had picked up just before WAFCON. It’s unlucky for her, I think it affected us. We matched them pound-for-pound, not that we played 120 minutes [in the previous match]. That impacted us when Gabriela got injured,” Ellis concluded.
