Ellis hails Banyana warriors who ‘never stop fighting’

Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis said she had “warriors” on the Wellington Regional Stadium field who came from behind and the scores level to beat Italy 3-2 through Thembi Kgatlana’s injury-time winner and reach the Women’s World Cup last 16.

Banyana ended second in group C and meet the Netherlands in the historic first knockout phase World Cup match by a senior South African national team at Sydney Football Ground on Sunday (4am).

The dangerous Kgatlana scored her third World Cup goal, and second in New Zealand, in the 92nd minute but it was Hildah “Breadwinner” Magaia who was player of the match — also scoring her second goal in her debut global showpiece tournament.

In a dramatic game of swinging fortunes Italy led through Arianna Caruso’s 11th-minute penalty but Benedetta Orsi’s own goal levelled the scores in the 32nd.

Magaia — scorer in Banyana’s last-gasp defeat to Sweden in their opener, and of a brace in the final against hosts Morocco when they won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations last year — struck South Africa into the lead in the 67th. Caruso headed Italy level in the 74th, then Kgatlana scored the winner in the second minute of 11 of referee’s optional time.

“They call me ‘The Breadwinner’. Without me there’s no bread so I had to provide the bread for the nation,” Magaia quipped. “It means a lot, especially knowing we were so close to going home. It is an emotional one.”

Ellis said Banyana — who blew a 2-0 lead in their second game against Argentina to draw 2-2, a result that might have demoralised many teams — are a side who never give up fighting.

“I think there was a time on the line where we had five coaches giving directions, including the captain [Refiloe Jane, on the bench carrying a niggling injury] — it was that tough,” the coach said.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game but we knew what we were capable of. We trained the whole few days for going behind, because we have not had to come from behind [at the World Cup].

“But these girls were just fricking amazing. No-one gave us a chance but we knew what we were capable of and fought like warriors.

“We said we needed to keep our best players on the pitch and we managed that by not pressing all the time; we said ‘take it in moments’.

“But this is for everybody back home, people getting up in the early hours of the morning when they were all disappointed when we should have won against Argentina.

“I said I wanted them to go to work smiling in their cars because we knew the game started at 9am [in SA]. This is for all the coaches in the league who have played their part, all the coaches and players who came before, everybody involved in women’s football who played their part.

“This is for every player who put in, but more so for these players who have really put the work in. Yesterday I told you about the ‘Breadwinner’, and the breadwinner came through for us. But we had warriors out there.

“That [point-blank] save from [goalkeeper] Kaylin [Swart] at the end [from a chance] that could have put us out of the tournament. We never stopped fighting.

“We even changed the formation and said, ‘Let’s go three at the back and just go’. And that’s how we got it because this team never gives up.”

Netherlands, who lost against the US in the 2019 final, beat Portugal 1-0, drew 1-1 against the US and thrashed Vietnam 7-0 to top group E.