Banyana coach remains positive regarding her youthful squad

Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis is already identifying positives in the changes she's made as part of her quest to build a solid national women’s football team bolstered by youthful players.

This comes after Banyana’s two wins in international friendlies against Lesotho at UJ Soweto Campus. Ellis’ charges beat their neighbours 1-0 in the first encounter on Saturday, thanks to Nobahle Mdelwa’s penalty.

On Tuesday, 25 February they delivered another authoritative performance, brushing aside the visitors 2-0. Five minutes into the game, Sibongile Ntoane put the home side in the lead and then Unathi Simayile scored the second goal to seal the 2-0 final score on the stroke of halftime.

Ellis sees potential in the young, inexperienced players in her squad.

“We started running with the ball, started getting caught in possession, everyone, because for many of these players, two games in quick succession like this, they’re not used to that,” Ellis told the media.

“With this being pre-season, we’ve also tried to assist where we can, and that’s the reason why we made so many changes because we needed to look at other players.

“We tried to refresh the squad, started playing better again, and then obviously towards the end, the last 20 minutes, it was just tired legs because many of them are not used to playing at this level,” added the coach.

These friendly games form part of the preparation for the Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) set to take place in July.

Senior Banyana players abroad such as Jermaine Seoposenwe, who currently plays for CF Monterrey, and Thembi Kgatlana of Tigres UANL – both in Mexico – are also doing well. Ellis added that their form is important for the team.

“It is very important that Jermaine and Thembi are doing well. They both scored four goals already this season, the confidence is there,” she said.

“That really helps that they are doing well there, you know their mentality – look at the Wafcon 2022 when we lost Thembi to injury, Jermaine stepped up, Hildah (Magaia) stepped up as well.

“We are going to need other players also to step up, but it is really encouraging for us that they are doing well.”

© Vuyo Ndudane