The South African Women’s national team has some serious work to do ahead of next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Banyana Banyana has conceded a whopping 13 goals in their last three international friendly matches since they won the Africa Cup of Nations in July.
Banyana lost 4-1 to Australia in London on Saturday.
Banyana Banyana won their maiden Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in July, and also qualified for their second FIFA World Cup that will be held in Australia and New Zealand next year. But their preparations for the global showpiece have not gone according to plan.
“We were talking about improved performance. We were talking about being better defensively, being better on the ball, and being better in the final third. We didn’t create much in the final third. Defensively, we didn’t start well in the end we were not jittery we played a lot more from the back,” says Desiree Ellis.
The African champions are also shy in front of goals having scored just one in their last three matches and that was against Australia on Saturday, but several players were given an opportunity to impress the technical team against Australia and Coach Desiree Ellis was quite impressed.
“We needed to go forward a lot more and we scored a goal which was great for us I thought the second half was a much better performance. We tested a lot more players and some raised their hands and the pool is bigger now,” explains Ellis.
Playing against teams that are ranked higher than them can only improve the team ahead of the world cup. Hilda Magaia, who scored against Australia say they are taking invaluable lessons from the high-profile matches.
“I think overall if you check the games that we played against brazil and this one you can see that there is so much difference we came back with the lessons that we got from brazil and it went well and going forward I hope we will work hard as a team,” says Magaia.
Banyana player Linda Motlhalo says the friendlies against big teams will help them to prepare for the World Cup.
“I mean the positives out of this game are that we were able to play and we managed to score a goal and if we could just reduce making mistakes in our own half and avoid conceding goals we will be doing well. it’s good that we have friendlies so that we can prepare for the world cup it’s good that we are playing against brazil and Australia because in the world cup we will play very good teams,” says Motlhalo.
South Africa will find out the identity of their opponents in the group stages of the World Cup on the 22nd of October when the draw will be conducted.
⚽️Match report: 📖
Banyana go down to Australia in London https://t.co/FoZpUKFMU5
— Banyana_Banyana (@Banyana_Banyana) October 8, 2022
-Reporting by SABC News Vincent Sitsula
