Ellis believes Jamaica clashes was great prep for WAFCON

By Ayanda Nyuswa

Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis believes their international friendly matches against Jamaica provided great preparation for next year’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Morocco, where they will defend their title. The South African senior Women’s national team suffered defeat in both matches against the Reggae girls, with the first encounter ending in a 3-0 drubbing last Saturday, and the second a hard-fought 3-2 victory for the home side in the early hours of Tuesday morning (SA time).

The second meeting between the two sides saw a much improved performance by Desiree Ellis’ troops as they adapted much better to the physicality and the pace of the Jamaicans. Linda Motlhalo’s 19th minute strike took South Africa to the break with a 1-goal advantage. That lead was quickly evaporated as the Reggae girls roared back with three second half goals by Vyan Sampson, Drew Spence and Kayla Jay McKenna as they took complete control of the encounter. Amogelang Motau benefited from a goalkeeping error to net South Africa’s second goal of the match in the 90th minute, but time wasn’t on their side as they succumbed to yet another loss on the road.

“I think we played the way we wanted to play, moving the ball around I think our movement up front, especially in the first half could’ve been better,” said Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis. “We came here without a strike because we had a couple of withdrawals just before we left, so we couldn’t replace anyone. I think we also gave some debuts to players, we had a 21 year old centre back who played for the first time and I think she had Shaw (Khadija) in her back pocked, tonight she had her in her back pocket. She dropped deep, she couldn’t get passed her so that’s a plus for us. We also had a left back who last played for us in 2022 who we brought back as well, that’s another big plus for us. Also having some of our players back, we still have a lot of players missing, and I think that looks good for us going forward. We are preparing for the WAFCON to defend our title and this was great preparation. We knew the physicality, we knew the speed of the Jamaicans, we knew Shaw was gonna give us problems but tonight we showed that we have very good young players coming through.” 

Picture: SAFA.net