Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis took “a lot of positives” out of the 2-1 defeat to Sweden in their opening match of the Women’s World Cup.
Banyana took the lead just after half-time when Hildah Magala bundled home Thembi Kgatlana’s rebounded shot. The Swedes equalised with 20 minutes to go through Fridolino Rolfo. Banyana looked to be holding on for the draw through some stubborn last-ditch defending but Amanda Ilestedt headed home in the 90th minute to shatter Banyana hearts.
Banyana coach Desiree Ellis was happy with the performance of her charges despite the defeat.
“I thought everything they threw at us we handled really well, and our transitions were really good, but our decisions in the final third could have been better on occasions, and we would have been in [on goal],” Ellis revealed during her post-match interview.
“When we scored, we still had control of the game. I think the own goal came at an unfortunate time and that put us back a bit.
🤔 ℂ𝕆𝔸ℂℍ'𝕊 ℝ𝔼𝔸ℂ𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ 🤔
— SABC Sport (@SABC_Sport) July 23, 2023
Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis reacting to their 2⃣➖1⃣ loss against Sweden.#SABCSportFootball #Sisonke #GameChangeHer #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/ft0SzO8iHL
“We always knew, physically, they were going to challenge us aerially, but throughout the game we handled that extremely well. I am really proud of the players. We had a game plan and we played accordingly to the game plan.
“But we didn’t take our chances really and, being the side that Sweden is with the players that they have and the resilience that they have, they kept coming but I felt our defence played really well, but we just couldn’t hold on in the end.
Ellis added: “I can take a lot of positives from this game, we were good on the ball and really good defensively.
“We’ve worked a lot on our defence, we’ve worked a lot on our set-pieces, and I thought we handled those two areas well.
“We could have protected the ball a bit more on occasions or even spread the ball around more when we had the opportunity.
“If our transitions and the final ball in the final third, if that was better, we would have been talking about different results now.”
Banyana next take on Argentina before finishing the group stage against Italy.
