After their Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) quarter-final exit to Morocco, South Africa head coach Desiree Ellis finds herself between a rock and a hard place, as African football has jumped ahead of her since Banyana's maiden triumph in 2022.
When Ellis took over as head coach -- first on an interim basis in 2016 and later permanently - - she inherited a talent pipeline that had been improved by predecessor Vera Pauw's sustained effort on that front, which aided the development of the likes of Thembi Kgatlana and Linda Motlhalo.
The outspoken Pauw and more reserved Ellis, at least as far as her public demeanour goes, never needed universal popularity in order to keep Banyana Banyana moving in the right direction.
Both have undoubtedly played a huge role in what has always been a difficult job, often made more challenging by internal issues within the South African Football Association (SAFA) - as was evinced by player protests before the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup and last year's WAFCON.
However, the task Ellis faces now is even tougher: reconquering Africa in an environment where there does not appear to be quite the same depth of talent in the upcoming generation as in the outgoing one, and rivals -- particularly Morocco -- are advancing in leaps and bounds structurally.
Ellis agreed a four-year contract with SAFA late last year. It was an important step for the association to ensure a formal structure to the employment of a coach who had been leading the national team without guarantees of her long-term future.
Now, however, the success which she played an instrumental role in driving, namely the 2022 WAFCON title, is the yardstick by which the public will measure her, but even at club level, South African women's football has regressed.
At the time that Ellis' Banyana lifted the WAFCON 2022 title -- Banyana's first and only continental triumph -- Mamelodi Sundowns were reigning African women's champions, having won the inaugural tournament in 2021. They would go on to repeat that triumph in 2023.
Sundowns have continued to dominate the Hollywoodbets Super League, but have underwhelmed on the continent since their second Champions League win.
Morocco, by contrast, has had a finalist in each of the last four tournaments, with AS FAR winning in 2022 and 2025 while supplying a steady stream of players for the national team, as Sundowns does for Banyana.
The local South African league, in which the majority of Banyana's players cut their teeth, started two months later than expected this year. However hard some owners are trying, it is incredibly difficult to provide genuine competition for the Motsepe family's club in a women's football ecosystem that does not have Morocco's professional setup.
While criticism of the likes of Noxolo Cesane, Ronnel Donnelly and Nthabiseng Majiya -- and Ellis' use of them -- may have been warranted at times, the question critics should focus on predominantly is how many opportunities they and other South African talents are being afforded to become the players they could be.
Kgatlana had predicted in a 2023 interview with ESPN that Morocco would become the dominant force in African women's football only months after South Africa had beaten them in the WAFCON final.
The Atlas Lionesses have yet to fully complete their journey to the top, but in Saturday's 2-1 quarter-final win over Banyana in Rabat, they looked well on their way, despite then losing in the semifinals to Cameroon on Wednesday.
South Africa still have a vital play-in game against Nigeria on Thursday that will determine who advances to the Inter-Confederation qualification tournament for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Beyond that, it is unlikely that many of the stars behind the class of 2022 will be involved at the top level for Banyana. If they were still relied upon heavily, then that in itself would be a sign of the times.
Ellis led Banyana to their first WAFCON title while her golden generation papered over cracks in the system underneath them. Now, unless the foundations are properly fixed, South African women's football may, aside from the memories, soon be all but back at square one.