Ellis remains proud of Banyana despite 3-0 defeat to Brazil

03 September 2022 - 13:09 By SITHEMBISO DINDI
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Banyana Banyana forward Jermaine Seoposenwe and Rafaelle Souza of Brazil during the Women's International Friendly match at Orlando Stadium on September 02 in Johannesburg.
Banyana Banyana forward Jermaine Seoposenwe and Rafaelle Souza of Brazil during the Women's International Friendly match at Orlando Stadium on September 02 in Johannesburg.
Image: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images

While Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis is proud of how her team stood up against Brazil in their friendly match, she believes the African champions still have to make many improvements before the Fifa Women’s World Cup.

Banyana suffered a 3-0 defeat to a strong Brazilian team at Orlando Stadium on Friday as they begin their preparation for the 2023 World Cup.

The world showpiece will be staged in Australia and New Zealand in July next year.

Banyana will be aiming to do better than they did in their first appearance in 2019 when they lost all three matches in the group stages and conceded eight goals while scoring just one.

Though they went down 3-0, Ellis believes the match exposed her players to what they are going to face at the World Cup.

“We said that we wanted to play our game and we wanted to make sure that we come out of this game being proud of ourselves and we thought that we really rotated the ball well,” Ellis said after the game.

“Defensively, I thought in the beginning we were a bit shaky but we managed to sort that out. And to concede two goals right at the end of the first half, I thought it was criminal.

“We spoke about that if you are free and someone (in the opponent) is free, you’ve got to make sure that you look around,” she said.

The coach was also honest about their shortcomings, saying they will need to work hard before they play their first match in New Zealand or Australia.

“I thought that we created a few chances, especially with Hildah (Magaia) having that one chance. We have to be a little bit more clinical,” Ellis said.

“In the second half, we played really well and created a lot of (chances) in transitions, but I thought our final ball in the final third was a little bit poor. That has to improve.

“Once again we made a mistake which they scored from, but I’m really proud of the team. I thought we rotated the ball well and stood up to them. We knew that they were going to put us under pressure and that is what we wanted — to be able to play out of that pressure and many times we did.

“But we’ve got to be better in the final third and defensively. Other than that I’m really proud of the team.”

Banyana and Brazil will face off in another friendly at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium on Monday evening (6pm).

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