Banyana Banyana head coach Dr Desiree Ellis has reacted to her side’s 2-0 win over Ghana at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, saying it was even stevens however South Africa needed to have a good start.
The defending champions scored in the first half and missed several chances in the Group C opener and walked away with maximum points. The Black Queens also had chances to get back into the game but were denied by Andile Dlamini and the woodwork several times. This result saw Banyana on top with three points followed by Mali who defeated Tanzania 1-0 in the other pool match.
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Ellis was happy that her side played to their strength and put themselves in a good position at the start.
“I think the second goal came also at a great time we could have finished it off with the third one,” said Ellis.
“They almost got back in they had a couple of chances, but if you look at the game overall, I think it was even-stevens because Andile [Dlamini] made quite a couple of saves as well. I thought we handled their long ball very well. We knew that it would come from the left-hand side and in the middle, I thought Linda [Motlhalo] controlled that part of the game really well.
“We always know we’re going to create chances, and we always say if we can keep a clean sheet, we have a chance to win the game. And today, our whole team played defensively really well, but it was extremely hot out there and I think the cooling break was welcome. I think we made the changes at the right time as well, and that also really helped to settle down the team. But take nothing away from Ghana. They are still a quality side because the 15 minutes could have really changed the game, if we had to concede there. But we stuck in there and hung around and took a little bit more control and got the result that we wanted.
“I think if you go back 2018, we played Ghana who can play and are physical, in 2022 we played Ghana as well who were physical. In 2016 we played Cameroon who were physical. We know what our strengths are. We are never going to muscle people around but if we can move the ball around quick and our movement off the ball that is our strength. Once we did that with the ball, we had them chasing shadows. We know we’re going to get shoved around and we have the speed, we have the skill, and we have to play to our strength.
“And unfortunately, we’re not blessed with those big, physical players, but we have to do what we are good at, and we are not trying to change how we play because, playing a long ball to a physical striker is not how we play. We want to put the ball on the ground, so we know it’s going to happen, and we know we needed to get off to a good start because not getting a good result in the first game puts you on the back foot. And now we can manage the situation like we need 2018 like we did 2022.”
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