SOCCER: Banyana Banyana’s Olympic charge gains pace after crushing win over Madagascar

The good news for Banyana Banyana is that they are through to the third round of African playoffs for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles after beating Madagascar 7-0 on aggregate over two legs. Striker Ronnel Donnelly starred in both matches, which were played in Bloemfontein, scoring five of the seven goals.

With Madagascar being one of the minnows of African women’s soccer, compared to their well-established South African counterparts, it was always going to be a non-contest. Maybe that is why the islanders requested that the first leg, which was their home game, be played behind closed doors.

The Malagasy could not host the opening leg of the qualifier on home soil, due to not having the quality of pitches required for such high-profile clashes. They agreed to have the match played in South Africa instead, on the condition that no supporters would be allowed at the Free State Stadium.

It mattered little as Banyana Banyana smashed four unanswered goals past Madagascar, with Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies’ striker Donnelly doing the most damage via a hat-trick. She came off the bench in the second leg, to once again batter the Malagasy with a brace in the second leg and steer the team to another comfortable victory (3-0).

Past Olympics failures

Desiree Ellis’ team will be relieved to have navigated through the second round, which they were airdropped into (after a bye in the second round, due to their ranking). Banyana are seeking to qualify for the Olympics for the first time since 2016.

During their qualification journey for the 2020 Games in Tokyo, Banyana Banyana were ousted by neighbours Botswana in the second round of the qualifiers. As a result, they failed to build on the momentum of reaching their first Games in 2012, and their second participation at the multisport tournament in 2016.

Banyana Banyana suffered two consecutive Olympic qualification heartbreaks by failing to book their ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympics. This means sitting in the dugout as a head coach at the Olympics remains elusive for Ellis. She was present in 2016 as an assistant to Vera Pauw. She took over as head coach not long after that tournament.

However, she has always stressed that it is not about her or her own ambitions: “It’s never about me. It’s always about the team first. That (qualifying for the Olympics) is one thing, as a group, we haven’t done.”

Leaping over the first hurdle in their quest to rectify this by reaching the 2028 Games in Los Angeles has handed the team major confidence for their busy schedule over the next couple of months.

This includes the team trying to qualify for the 2027 Fifa Women’s World Cup in Brazil on an arduous playoff route. Banyana Banyana have played in the previous two World Cups, in 2019 (debut) and 2023 (where they reached the round of 16).

However, they failed to directly qualify for next year’s edition after being knocked out in the quarterfinals at the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. Ellis’ charges succumbed 2-1 to hosts Morocco, with only the teams that reached the semifinals directly making it to the World Cup.

World Cup qualification quest

Now the South Africans will have to navigate a convoluted playoff route in hopes of reaching their third successive World Cup. Banyana will join a six-team preliminary round group including Ghana, Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan, Ecuador and Papua New Guinea.

But they will face Chinese Taipei, Ecuador and Uzbekistan only in the mini-league, which is set for between 24 November and 5 December 2026. The points they accumulate from those three fixtures will determine whether they will be among the two teams to advance to the second round of qualifiers.

“These were games for us to set the tone for our qualification campaign [for the 2028 Olympics]. Which we did. It was an opportunity to give some of the young players a chance to play, which the coach did. And they showed up. It was a good game to showcase what we can do as a team. We’ve reached that objective, and now it’s on to the next thing,” said Banyana Banyana midfielder Amogelang Motau.

“Winning gives you that confidence; keeping a clean sheet has the same effect as well, so these two wins were real morale-boosters for us going into some very important games, to give us that momentum,” her coach Ellis said.

The 2022 African Champions will face Angola in the third round of Olympic qualifiers in February/March next year after the latter brushed aside Namibia 2-0 on aggregate. DM