Ellis responds to Morocco crowd factor

Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis says they are not fazed by the notion that the crowd at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium will swallow them up and give hosts Morocco the upper hand in the Women™s Africa Cup of Nations final tonight. 

Morocco, like Banyana, won five out of five in the WAFCON so far, but their biggest win was against the reigning champions Nigeria, beating them 5-4 on penalties in a semi-final that was not short of drama as the Super Falcons had two players sent off and struggled with being outnumbered in the stands in terms of supporters. 

Banyana have to be clinical tonight - they™ve been criticised for being wasteful in the previous matches, although they have a 100 percent winning record, and Ellis, who recently bagged her third successive CAF Coach of the Year award, believes taking their chances will be the turning point. 

"Darryl Coutries [SAFA head of commercial and brand], who you'll know if you're from South Africa, reminded me about 2015 when we went to Equatorial Guinea to qualify for the 2016 Olympics," shared Ellis in her press conference, suggesting the team are no strangers to being outnumbered away from home.

"There were many challenges leading up to that game, and on the day of the game we came out and just saw a sea of red, and the players were absolutely magnificent that day - we won the game 1-0.

"We've also played at the Rio Olympics at arguably the biggest stadium in the world [Maracana] against Brazil, and when they sang the national anthem it gave me goosebumps.

"The home crowd will be there but we have to do what we have to do, which is to make sure we stay concentrated and don't concede. We are a team that will create [opportunities], and this time we have to be much more clinical in front of goal."

Speaking on the Atlas Lionnesses, who are making their WAFCON final debut, Ellis acknowledged that the hosts have not been fortuitous in their journey, which is rather a result of meticulous planning and huge investment.

"Morocco are not in the final by chance, they started their program a while ago. They have a professional league, they have a national league for U17, they brought in a coach that won the [UEFA Women's] Champions League," she added.

"They've had a lot of friendlies against top teams, so they are not there [in the final] by chance. They have a very good team and, like they will analyse us, we've analysed them and we just have to execute our game-plan - that's what it boils down to, if we do that we will come out with a positive result."

By Mazola Molefe

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