Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis is working hard on minimising the mistakes that end up costing the national women’s side dearly.
Committing juvenile errors and kindergarten type of mistakes has been a part of Banyana since they won the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) over two months ago.
It was the same at the weekend when Banyana suffered a humiliating 4-1 loss to Australia during a friendly international match in London. The match was one in a string of friendlies they have played against formidable opponents in the build-up to the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
“I thought we did not start well and we conceded very early. We spoke about minimising the mistakes, but once again, we conceded from a mistake.” said Ellis on the Safa website.
“At times we were good on the ball, but we were not consistent. We played in patches and we were not tracking back, and we conceded again.
“A lot of positives for us because I thought it was a better performance, we tested some new players and I thought they really raised their hands. That’s a big positive for us and we scored a goal.”
Banyana created one shot on target, which turned out to be a consolation goal from Hilda Makgaia. Cortnee Vine scored a brace for The Matildas, while Clare Polkinghorne and Caitlin Foord grabbed a goal each.
However, Ellis was impressed with the youngsters who handled the pressure well against a formidable Australian side.
This year is proving to be the busiest for the African champions, starting in February with a camp for an away encounter against Zambia. The match was part of preparations for the Wafcon two-legged qualifiers against Algeria, also played in February.
The national side then converged for a camp for final preparations before Wafcon, which saw them travel to the Netherlands to face Oranje Leeuwinnen (the Netherlands women’s team) in an international friendly match in April.
The Wafcon camp, which was the third for the team, commenced on June 11 and lasted until Banyana were crowned champions on July 23.
Brazil and Australia served as the fourth and fifth camps, respectively, for coach Ellis’ African champions. The team has so far played 13 games in the calendar year, scoring 15 goals and conceding 25.
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