Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis has reacted to the defeat of her team against World Cup number 3 Sweden at Wellington Regional Stadium.
Banyana failed to protect their lead from Hildah Magaia three minutes into the second half. The CAF Women Africa Cup of Nations winners conceded a goal 17 minutes after taking the lead.
The goal initially looked like an own goal by Lebohang Ramalepe but it was later awarded to Fridolina Rolfö.
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Ellis says they managed the threats that Sweden had thrown at them but the decision-making let them down.
“Everything that [they] threw at us we handled it very well. I thought our transitions were very good but decision-making in the final third could’ve been better on occasion,” said Ellis during a post-match interview.
DESIREE ELLIS BEMOANS SWEDEN EQUALISER DURING DEFEAT
“When we scored, we still had control of the game. I think the own goal came at an unfortunate time. I think that put us back a bit and we always knew that physically they were going to challenge us aerially.”
She added: “I thought throughout the game we handled that extremely well. [I’m] really proud of the players. We had the game plan and we played according to the game plan but we didn’t take our chances.”
Banyana managed to have four shots on target against World Cup favourites even though they only managed to convert one. Therefore, Ellis insists there were a lot of positives from her side but if her team was good in the final third, the results would’ve been different.
“A lot of positives I thought we were really good on the ball and were really good defensively. We worked a lot on our defence, we worked a lot on our set-pieces I thought we handled those two areas very well.
“The transition in the final ball in the final third if it was better, we would have talked about different results now,” she concluded.
South Africa will face Argentina in a must win match at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Friday at 02H00 South African time.
By Katleho Hlalele
