KOPANO MONAHENG
A victory for Banyana Banyana tomorrow is certainly possible, if they did their homework well, and also minimise mistakes done on Saturday against the same team.
Though based on the first match and the quality of the opposition, Japan will still start as the favourites. The 5-0 defeat showed that Japan punished every mistake and dominated possession, with coach Desiree Ellis acknowledging that her team had important lessons to take from the loss. The second friendly gives Banyana an opportunity to apply those lessons before WAFCON.
“So it’s going to be another tough game but we just have to make sure that we execute our plans,” she said. Desiree said they they’ve been looking at opposition analysis as well as doing that on training to make sure that they do better in their second match tomorrow.
According to Desiree everything Banyana do is a process. “Sometimes you’ll see it in the game continuously and sometimes you’ll see bits and pieces of it, but you have to keep working on it to make sure that everybody understands eventually when it comes like you know we’ll be happy with the processes that we’ve taken.”
For Banyana to improve their chances, they will need to stay compact defensively and avoid costly errors at the back. More on that, they needed to be more composed when playing out from defence.According to the coach they will make a few chances to make sure that they view as many players as possible.
“Also the game will dictate to when and how of course because we want to test players, we want to see what they do on a higher stage and a higher level to make sure that we give them the opportunity to test themselves but also give us an opportunity to have a look at them,” said the coach.
Desiree said friendlies are often about learning, so it’s also possible that both coaches will rotate players and experiment with tactics, which could make the game more balanced.
Even if Banyana do not win, a disciplined performance with a much smaller scoreline such as a draw or a narrow defeat would be a positive sign ahead of WAFCON.
Despite the heavy defeat on Saturday, Banyana have grown into one of Africa’s strongest women’s teams, winning the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations and reaching the knockout stage of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time in their history
