South Africa’s senior national women’s team coach Desiree Ellis has pointed out why their semi-final opponents Zambia will be tough when the two Southern African nations clash in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nation [WAFCON] in Morroco.
Banyana Banyana will have their tails high in the semi-final showdown after qualifying for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in style. High-flying South Africa turned themselves into serious title contenders with a 100% winning record so far in the tournament.
Despite the impressive form displayed by the South African Women’s team, head coach Desiree Ellis believes the team need to be clinical to make it to the Final. With only two goals scored in two of their previous outings against Botswana and Tunisia, Ellis stresses the team has been struggling to convert their chances.
“The three games we played were all different. The first obviously the most important and what made the game bigger was because the opponents were Nigeria.
“I think we did extremely well in that game but conceded poorly at the end. In the Burundi game, we made a couple of changes to rest players, there wasn’t that much fluidity, but we got the result.
“In the game against Botswana, we knew the tactics they were going to employ; we needed to break them down. We had a lot of opportunities, and they didn’t even have one shot at goal.
“So each and every game, we’ve shown that we can create, but we’ve got to be a little more clinical because the Tunisia game could have turned out differently if we didn’t take our chances. These knockout games are once off, you don’t get the second chance, there are no three points,” said the Cape Town-born coach.
With ‘SHEpolopo’ seeking to cause an upset to South Africa and make it to the WAFCON Final set to take place on the 23 of July, the former Banyana star remains optimistic about victory against Bruce Mwape’s side.
“Zambia have shown the quality, they’ve demonstrated resilience, they are also facing a lot of adversity, and their players have really come through, so it’s not going to be an easy game.
“It’s going to be an extremely difficult game. Our last two games against Zambia didn’t turn out well. We lost against them in the 3rd place playoff at the COSAFA Cup on penalties, we then lost in a friendly 3-0, so it didn’t go well, but we are better than that,” added the 59-year-old mentor.
Banyana will tackle Zambia in the semi-finals at State Mohammed V Stadium on Monday. Kick is at 19:00
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