Banyana showed 'resilience, bravery and courage' against Swedes, says Ellis

Banyana Banyana showed how much they have improved on the World Cup stage with their performance of “resilience, bravery and courage”, almost matching third-ranked Sweden in their group G opener in Wellington, New Zealand, coach Desiree Ellis said. 

The African champions gave a display worthy of their continental title as they shocked the tournament dark horses taking the lead through Hildah Magaia's 48th-minute opener at Wellington Regional Stadium on Sunday night (early morning in South Africa).

A defensive error allowed Fridolina Rolfö to equalise in the 65th. From one of Sweden's dangerous corners — where the South Africans were troubled by the Scandinavians' height all evening — Amanda Ilestedt’s headed a last-gasp winner (90th).

The 2-1 defeat puts 54th-ranked Banyana under pressure for their results in their remaining matches against 28th-ranked Argentina in Dunedin on Friday (2am SA time) and 16th-ranked Italy back in Wellington on August 2 (9am SA time).

But the manner of the performance — the South Africans defending superbly and creating chances, though of course they also rode their luck sometimes against their vaunted opponents — will boost Banyana's confidence they can get results in the theoretically easier remaining games.

“We had a gameplan and I thought it worked throughout. I thought we were defensively very sound,” Ellis said.

“We knew they were going to be a challenge at set pieces and I thought we handled that very well.

“Our transitions could have been better. If our decisions in the final third had been better we’d be speaking about a different result now.

“We’ve been working on all of those things and as the game went on we tried to effect changes to ensure we stood fast.

“Unfortunately we conceded at a moment where we were in complete control and that put us back a bit. And to concede right at the end I thought was a bit cruel, but that is football.

“I thought in this performance, even though it was a loss, we are very proud of the way we played.

“We might not have had the preparation we wanted but the group of players have shown resilience, they’ve shown bravery and courage — and through that we could have got a better result.

“But other than that I’m very proud of the way we played. We had a gameplan and they [Sweden] did exactly what we thought they would.

“At times I thought if we had taken our chances, or better decisions where we were maybe two-vs-one and went on our own, we could have had a different result, even with them scoring at the end.”

Given how many corners Sweden had — 13 to South Africa's one — and how dangerous they looked there, Banyana dealt well in the end against those to only concede one goal from them.

The Europeans always looked like they could score from a corner though — and especially Ilestedt’s, who came close on a number of occasions. So it was no surprise in the end that Banyana's demise came from that department and scorer.

They might look to beef up that area, though also examine and prepare for Argentina's strengths and weaknesses, in the next three days' training.

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