Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis is looking forward to carrying the momentum after a historical victory over Japan.
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Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis has highlighted the weight carried by their historic victory over Japan, whom they beat 1-0 away on Tuesday morning.
Linda Mothlalo netted the only goal from a corner kick delivery by captain Refiloe Jane, who was playing her 150th cap on the day.
“If I’m not mistaken, it is our first win against a top-10 side, and what a way to do it. They recently came off a series against the USA where they won some games,” Ellis reflected on the victory.
“So we will use this as a springboard to keep getting better. We all know what this is about — it is about the preparations for WAFCON. WAFCON was supposed to happen in March, and we were going to play Japan after that.”
The WAFCON is scheduled to take place in Morocco from July 25 to August 16, with Banyana drawn in Group C against Ghana, Mali and Tanzania.
Banyana’s victory in Japan is historic for the whole African continent: it was the first time a senior African women’s side had beaten a top-ranked Japan. Banyana, though, were responding to a 5-0 defeat in the first leg at the weekend.
Head coach Desiree Ellis freshened up her starting line-up with three changes, handing starts to Kaylin Swart, Bongeka Gamede and Thembi Kgatlana in place of Andile Dlamini, Nonhlanhla Mthandi and Gabriela Salgado respectively. Japan also reshuffled their team significantly, with Seiki Kiko the only player retained from the previous encounter.
“The technical team put in a lot of work to rectify what we had to rectify, and we dealt with jet lag. We cannot fault the effort of the players — with the big save at the beginning and everyone putting their bodies on the line, and shifting,” reflected Ellis.
“The plan — you’ve got to give credit to the analysts — was spot on. The coaches and the technical team for the work they put in.”
Ellis continued: “We dealt with that. Our players have to be proud of the work they put in after the result in the first game — looking at where we went wrong and trying to rectify that at training. The corner (that gave them a goal on Tuesday) was a result of that shifting and pressing.”
What was even more pleasing for Ellis was keeping a clean sheet.
“Keeping a clean sheet after that first result — I think that is magnificent, you know. After that first result, we’ve always said that if we keep a clean sheet, we will always be able to create some chances,” said Ellis.
“Putting them under pressure like that means we learned a lot. I could see from the first game that there were many learnings out of defeat.
“Yes, it is not finished — we still have a lot to learn — but I think this will do wonders for the confidence of the team and the confidence of the players.
“We will continue with our preparations. It doesn’t mean now that we’ve won the game that everything is all well. We are still going to work so that when we get to WAFCON we are a better version of ourselves.”