Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis says in hindsight the postponement of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament, has been a blessing in disguise for her side as they now have more time to prepare.
Ellis’ comments come ahead of Banyana’s first international friendly against Algeria at the Princess Magogo Stadium on Tuesday afternoon. This match will be followed by a second friendly against the same opponents on Friday.
These games will be followed by two friendlies against Japan in June. The 2022 African champions have been drawn in Group B with Tanzania, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso at the 2026 event.
Banyana had been in camp since March to prepare for the continental tournament, and with the 2026 Hollywoodbets Super League season not started yet, the team had only played competitively in the COSAFA Women’s Championship in Polokwane earlier in the year.
Ellis said Banyana are familiar with Algeria having seen them at the last WAFCON and they play a similar possession-based football like South Africa. The coach is expecting a big challenge adding that results don’t really matter in the encounter.
“You always want to win matches there’s no two ways about it,” said Ellis at the pre-match press conference.
“But we’ve brought a group of players here and we have two matches and it would be wrong not to test players, it would be wrong not to play players because why bring all of them. All of them might not play. They might get least minutes.
“We’ve brought three goalkeepers maybe two will play instead of the three but you want to look at players to test them. We’ve tested them in training. I know the result matters to the fans but for us it’s about the process of getting ready for WAFCON. This is another opportunity.
“Even though the league hasn’t started, training has continued throughout the month of March to see where the players are at, what we need to work on. Before you blink your eyes you are at WAFCON so this gives us an opportunity. We’ve been working on things you might not see all of it tomorrow [Tuesday] but hopefully you can see what we’ve been working on.”
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