Banyana coach Ellis takes positives from loss against Serbia

Desiree Ellis found some positives after Banyana Banyana’s 3-2 loss to Serbia in an international match played at Stara Pazova on Monday.

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Banyana are preparing for the Fifa Women’s World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand in July this year.

South Africa conceded three goals inside the first 22 minutes of the match against Serbia. Hilda Magaia pulled one goal back before half-time and Jermaine Seoposenwe scored the second in the second half, but despite their gallant effort, Banyana could not find the equaliser.

Ellis says conceding corners and set-pieces was Banyana’s downfall.

“Look, I think the first 15 minutes when they got all those set-pieces, they (the Banyana defence) didn’t organise very well, we could have dealt better with that. But after that, we were in complete control (of the game), we got one or two chances that we didn’t take,” said Ellis.

“Then we got another one and went into half-time 3-1, but prior to that I think we were a lot in control. We dealt with everything they threw at us. But we were better in the second half, we kept on rotating the ball very quickly. We got another chance and Jermaine put it away, we just couldn’t get the final one (to make it 3-3), but there are a couple of boxes that we can tick.”

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Ellis admitted that despite the disappointing result against the Serbians, there are some positives to take out of the loss.

“Not the result we wanted, we need to go back and have a look at how we can defend the set-pieces better. I would like to have a look before I can even speak about it (defending set-pieces). I felt that we were solid defensively in open play and that is one thing that we have been working on. I thought we could have been better in transition, there were some moments whereby when we could have played the ball earlier we could have been in on goal,” she added.