When South Africa defeated Zimbabwe 4-2 on penalties on Friday, Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis commended her girls for putting up a spirited fight against neighbors, to book a place in the finals of the COSAFA Women’s Championship.

The match ended 1-1 during regulation time, in a highly contested match, in which both teams played out their best game and created numerous chances but settled for a draw to push them into penalties.

Banyana Banyana will now face Namibia in the finals of the competition on Sunday in their pursuit to claim their seventh COSAFA trophy.

Zimbabwe and Zambia will now fight for the third and fourth place play-off on Sunday at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium.

According to Banyana’s Twitter page, Ellis praised the girls for displaying a superb performance.

“The Future Is Bright” – Ellis.

“After the Lesotho match in the group stages we said we wanted a big improvement, and I thought today was a big step up from that match. We knew it was going to be physical, and we knew they were going to come at us, but I think after conceding that goal so early, we settled down a bit. The whole team stood up; they fought for each other today. We needed that type of performance,” she said.

“When it came to the penalties, most of the more junior players raised their hands to want to take the penalty, and we only trained for one day, but they were so confident, and the way they took their penalties, I think we can be really proud of them,” added Dr. Ellis.

Ellis is using the COSAFA tournament as part of preparations for the upcoming WAFCON tournament.

“The country can be really proud of them because this is not just about preparing for the WAFCON, but it’s also about looking long-term. If you look at the players that were on the pitch, there definitely is a lot of potential and a bright future for South African women’s football,” noted the coach.