Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis says she is proud of her team despite losing 4-3 to Malawi in their opening match of the 2023 Hollywoodbets COSAFA Women’s Championship in Pretoria.
After the opening match, the seven-time champions find themselves at the bottom of the log in their Group with no points – same with Madagascar ahead of them, however with a better goal difference.
The South African senior women’s national team endured challenges leading to the game with players withdrawing from the squad including on the match day.
Ellis said the spirited performance from the ladies, who mostly were playing together for the first time and in other cases didn’t get to train before the game, is giving the team confidence to want to do better in the remaining Group matches. The coach also applauded the players’ attitude in outing the team first.
“We had a couple of 20-year-olds here today and I thought everybody…there’s nobody you can say didn’t play well,” said Ellis after the match.
“I think we always pride ourselves on team work because the team always comes first. If the team plays well you’ll see there are certain individuals standing out.
“We’ve had a few players that have been to some of our camps, you know that’s what we do all the time bring them to the camps because we also have to make the group bigger.
“A lot of players were not available. We had even withdrawals this morning so it gives us a lot of confidence to say that when certain players are not available we won’t hesitate to give these players opportunities because they’ve raised their hands and they’ve shown”
“I think that was a very spirited performance. I think when you look at the players that were on the park they came in and the attitude and everything. You know we had our little meeting this morning and that was it.
“You know we didn’t go into as much detail as we normally do but I think the understanding that they did and the willingness to play for each other, the willingness to come here and perform”
“We know that the crowd is here and we have to play well for them and I think the support they got from the crowd was fantastic so thank you to the crowd as well. We hope that they can come in more numbers because this team can only get better”
Banyana are in action again on Saturday against Madagascar at the Dobsonville stadium.
