Desiree Ellis addresses areas Banyana fell short against Serbia
Banyana Banyana’s mentor Desiree Ellis has addressed areas where her side fell short in the 3-2 loss against Serbia on Monday, 10 April.
A gallant Banyana narrowly lost in the FIFA international friendly game used as preparations for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. In the first 22 minutes of the game, the hosts, Serbia, were already three goals up, as Banyana struggled to find their feet.
However, Ellis’ troops came back around the 30th minute and made it 3-1 with a goal from Hildah Magaia.
By the end of the game, the score-line was 3-2, with a second-half goal from Jermaine Seoposenwe.
After the game, Ellis admitted that there are some areas that her troops still need to improve on.
Moreover, she was not pleased with how her side defended set pieces. As that is the area that led to them conceding goals. However, Ellis was delighted with how her side applied themselves in some areas.
ELLIS ON BANYANA’S POOR DEFENDING DURING SET-PIECES
“Look, I think the first 15 minutes when they got all those corners and set-pieces, we did not organise very well,” said Ellis.
“I thought the second, third goal, set-piece, we could have dealt better with that. But after that, I think we were in complete control. We got one or two chances that we didn’t take.
“Then we got another one, then we took that one, going into half-time at 3-1. Prior to that, I thought we were a lot in control.
“After that, we dealt with everything they threw at us. I think when we came out in the second half, we were even better. The intensity we kept up, kept on tracking the ball very quickly.
“Got another chance, Jermaine put it away, but we just could not get that final one. But there is a couple of boxes that we can tick, of course.
“Not the results we wanted, we need to go back and look at the set pieces and look at how we can do that better.
“I would like to have a look before I even speak about it. But I felt defensively in open play, we were very solid defensively.
“And that is something we have been working on extensively. I thought in our transitions we could have been a little better,” concluded Ellis.
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