International Friendly: Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis cautious despite beating Malawi

Photo Credit: South African Football Association

South Africa women's national team head coach Desiree Ellis has given positive reviews about her team following their 3-0 win against Malawi in the first international friendly.

Notwithstanding the victory in the first of their two scheduled friendly exercise in Soweto on Saturday, the former Banyana Banyana player states that there is still more work to be done. Speaking to SABC Sport, Ellis praised the players for adhering to the technical team’s tactics as they continue to build up the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations to be hosted by Morocco.

"Happy with the result, happy with the first half performance and look, we still have work to do. Out of the few things that we worked on worked really well for us.

“Thanks to the technical team that works a lot behind the scenes and the players because they've got to buy into what it is that we do," Ellis said.

"Look, I thought the first half we were really good, created lots of opportunities. Our movement of the ball, the way we controlled the game, the tempo was really high but we expected possibly the tempo to go down in the second half, considering the condition of the field and also considering that the Hollywoodbets Super League, a lot of teams haven't played on a regular basis,” the coach explained.

“When I've watched league football over the last month, you could see in the second half there was a dip and of course, the conditions on the field, it made the game really scrappy."

The 62-year-old coach further stated that, her priority in the two friendlies against Malawi is to build depth in the team, so that there’s enough backup should they face challenges with key players.

"I think it's important that we create depth because people always say, what happens if Jermaine [Seoposenwe] is not there, what happens if Hildah [Magaia] is not there, what happens if Bambanani [Mbane] is not there. So, we're trying to create that depth because it's really, really important."