Even though Banyana Banyana are still licking their wounds after a 5-1 drubbing by the Netherlands on Tuesday night, coach Desiree Ellis is upbeat that they can impress at the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (Awcon) and qualify for the Fifa Women’s World Cup.
The South Africans used the international friendly to polish up the squad for the upcoming Awcon tournament in July. Ellis’ girls missed star player Refiloe Jane who is in the books of Italian giants AC Milan because of an injury.
“We needed to test ourselves this early at this level, so that we will be able to gauge ourselves for Awcon. They [the Netherlands] moved the ball around nicely and they duly tested us. But the match has given us a lot of things to work on, like working on set-pieces and individual play,” said Ellis.
She explained further: “It’s about learning, it’s about giving the players a chance. I felt that at times our defending let us down, but we also created a few chances. In crucial moments when we looked like getting back into the game, we conceded goals.
“After half-time, we had the opportunity to change the scoreline but we didn’t take the chance. We also did not put the ball on the ground often, and when we did, we gave the ball away unnecessary.
“We said we wanted to see the team playing under pressure and we were tested physically and mentally. We are hoping that our leagues start as soon as possible. They had the best players against us and at times we managed to handle them in the beginning, but the girls got tired later in the game.”
Ellis added: “We are not happy with the scoreline, but I think in patches we showed what we need to do, and our fitness is improving. Like I said, we did not trust ourselves enough.”
This was the third meeting between the two sides, with Orange winning 2-0 in 2016 and 2-1 in 2019, respectively.
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