Ellis taking positives from Banyana’s humiliating defeats to Brazil

Desiree Ellis says the two friendly games against Brazil will give her an idea on which players will remain in Banyana Banyana squad for the Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year. 

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The South African senior women’s team were taught a football lesson by Brazil, with some of the Banyana players seemingly struggling to go toe-to-toe with the Brazilians, who recently won the Women’s Copa America, while Banyana are the current Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) champions. 

Banyana were thrashed 9-0 by Brazil over two friendlies, with the first game that was played at Orlando Stadium last Friday ending 3-0, before the 6-0 defeat at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Monday. 

Ellis lambasted the team’s errors for the losses, but she remains hopeful that this is something they will work on moving forward so that they will be ready for the Word Cup. 

“It’s the kind of mistakes that we did that top teams like Brazil count on and we get an opportunity (to score) we don’t utilise it. I felt that when we were on the ball we looked good and we created half chances. But, all round, the result was not great, but we are better than that. I said to the players, this is way up from the Wafcon,” said the Banyana coach. 

“We still have a lot of work to do, the World Cup is not tomorrow, it is in about a year from now. We wanted a test like this to see where we are. But we still have a lot of work to do. A lot of players were tested, we still need to sit down and look at the footage to see who goes with us on our journey, and if they are close who stays with us, who do we release and who do we bring in.”

The Fifa Women’s World Cup will be played between 20 July and 20 August 2023.