South Africa coach Desiree Ellis had mixed feelings after her side were eliminated from the Women’s World Cup on Sunday, losing 2-0 to the Netherlands in the last-16 in Sydney.
She spoke after at the post-match press conference:
What were your thoughts on the game?
“The chances that we created should have put us out of sight. We knew the quality side that the Netherlands are but always, if you don't take your chances, you don’t win. Our keeper had a fantastic game up until that moment (a mistake for the Dutch second gal) and I hope our people remember her for how well she played and not that one incident. But in the end, you know, the legs just weren’t there anymore for us to keep pushing for the duration of the game. But I said before that the Dutch were going to know that we are here. People spoke about underdogs. I don't think there are any more underdogs in this World Cup. I think the whole of South Africa should be very proud of this team. I know they (fans at home) got up very early in the morning and everybody expected victory. But we also played against a very good side and we wish them all the best in the next round. We are both proud and disappointed, of course, but really proud of the group.”
How much of a negative was losing Jermaine Seoposenwe and Bambanani Mbane to injury in the first half?
“I think it was huge. They were very instrumental in the way we play, especially Jermaine in what she brings to the team. But we brought 23 players and even after those injuries we still had a couple of chances that that we could have taken. It’s unfortunate but that is part of sport. I thought the players that came in acquitted themselves really well.
Do you think that this will provoke the South African Football Federation into providing more support for the team in the future, so that you don't have to rely on Patrice Motsepe digging into his pocket to pay for everything?
“I don't want to go too much into that. But I think if we need to look even further than that, I think we need a professional league. I think it is absolutely essential that we get a professional league. We have amateur league back home and for the players to come out and perform at this level against countries who play week in, week out, month in, month out against the top teams in the world shows that we have talent. We know that whatever happened back home should have maybe happened earlier and things might have been sorted out earlier and I'm sure that a lot of lessons were learnt from that.”
What did you say to keeper Kaylin Swart after the game, she looked understandably very upset after the final whistle?
“She'd played really well leading up to the goal you know. It's going to upset any individual missing sitters but when we came in at halftime, we really were just patting Thembi (Kgatlana) on the back and saying we ‘chin up, you know, this happens in the game, chin up’. But the professional that Kaylin is, she wants to have a perfect game and nobody has a perfect game. That's what we said. There's no way in the world you can have a perfect game, you're going to make a mistake. And unfortunately, that happened but she kept us in the game as well. And if you look at the fact that the Dutch keeper won the player of the match which tells you how well we played.”
How would you describe the experience of the World Cup? And secondly, how would you like this team to be remembered?
“We want to be remembered as a team that lit up the World Cup, as a so-called underdog … an underdog team that plays good football. We also want to be remembered for our singing, because that's who we are our and that’s what unites us. And that is what keeps us together. And I think when we walked around the stadium after the match, we could see how the people appreciated what we brought to the tournament.
What are your thoughts on Thembi Kgatlana’s performance?
“She is one player on the pitch who wants to do everything right. And she had a couple of chances. But it happens sometimes in the game, you know, but I felt that she gave us all she could and it was the same for everyone else. Towards the latter part of the game, you could see that we ran out of legs. And that's how much they put in because we believe we could have won this game. But as I said the Dutch were such a class side and they managed to slow down the game at times and move the ball around really quickly to move us around as well. And I think that counted in the end. I think we are disappointed than anything, we felt we could have won this game. And if I look back, we should have given the opportunities that we had, but we didn't take them. But still very proud. I think as a group, we need to hold our heads up high. I think if you look back when we qualified for the last 16 the whole country went crazy. And I'm expecting them to go crazy when we get back as well because this team really punched above their weight.”