Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis says the senior national women’s team will not leave anything to chance in the two-legged third round 2024 Paris Olympic qualifiers against Tanzania.
The team departed for Dare Salem for the first leg, which will be played on 23 February, on Tuesday morning, with the return leg set for Mbombela Stadium set for next Tuesday.
Local-based players have been in camp the last week preparing for the clash and the coach is aware of the challenges lying ahead, facing a team whose domestic league is already in season as opposed to South Africa, saying the preparation week should help in that regard for the Africa champions.
With Banyana having missed the last Olympic Games Ellis says they have that at the back on their minds and want to make sure the get a result away to take the pressure off for the home leg to get to the next round and eventually qualify for the multi coded event.
“Whenever we play we always go out for a result that’s the most important thing,” said Ellis.
“We don’t leave nothing to chance but we also have to be aware of their qualities and what they have to offer. So we will make sure that we get the result that we want to make the second leg easier and that’s important.
“We do know that the Olympics is not on goal difference so we’ve got to make sure that we get the job done but we got to make sure that we get the result in Tanzania to take the pressure off us at home.
“The last couple of games we have played away we drew games but it’s games that we could have won and we should have won with the chances that we had and knowing that we are also coming off a preseason.
“I think we were in a similar position in 2022 when played Algeria, who were in season the same like Tanzania are now, and we came in early to prepare and I think this week has gone extremely well which will help us in that.
“But like I say we go out there to do well in every game. We don’t leave it to chance and wait for the second leg because if we go there deciding how we are going to play or don’t want to win the game we will find ourselves on the back foot before we know it and we can’t get out of it.”
