Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis is confident her side can get the much-needed victory over Argentina to give themselves a shot at the knockout stages at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Banyana lost their opening Group G match 2-1 to Sweden last Sunday, while the Argentines lost 1-0 to Italy in their opener.
As things stand the Swedes top the group followed by Italy, both with with three points, then South Africa are third with Argentina at the bottom with no points.
Addressing the media ahead of the Argentina match Ellis said she takes positives from the opener into this critical game to be better in their finishing as goals are also going to important. Ellis says th African Champions have to be better in what they are already good at like being defensively sound, not conceding early and maximizing on counters.
“We know a lot of Argentina. We saw the game against Italy was very physical, obviously we have to move the ball around quicker,” Ellis told the media.
“They do have players that are very skilful but we know that a lot of our goals were scored on counter attack and that is one of our strengths. If we can get that right we will score goals tomorrow.
“If we can get that right and be defensively sound. So the first thing is not to concede. We were very happy in the Sweden match because some of the games we have conceded early.
“Leading up to the World Cup we worked a lot on that and making sure that we stay compact, that we stay organised, that we stay really defensively organised for the first 15, 20 minutes and then launch from there.
“And doing similar to where we don’t concede early because that puts you on the back foot, too.”
Ellis also insisted that the tactical plan against Sweden largely worked and if the players will again follow the plan against Argentina they could collect a historic first-ever win at the Women’s World Cup.
“We know it’s not only us who have to win the game, but Argentina has to win the game as well,” she added.
“So we’ve worked a lot on what we are good at but we’ve also worked a lot on what we are not good at and that is defending without the ball.
“I thought that against Sweden we were really good at that now we got to show what we can do when we have the ball. I thought that could be better. We didn’t protect the ball as much as we did. We didn’t move the ball around quickly as much as we did.
“But when you are playing a top side like Sweden, who put you under so much pressure you know you have to absorb all of that and try and hit them on the counter which we did. I say that counters are better.
“If the passing in the final third is better we will create and we will score chances. But it’s not going to be an easy game. We know Argentina are a good side, we saw it against Italy but if we play our own game and we create the chances and put them away we’ll get a positive result.”
Kick off time in Dunedin is at 02:00 on Friday morning.
