How Desiree Ellis is preparing for the 2023 FIFA World Cup

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup is a couple of months away, and Desiree Ellis continues to prepare the national women’s team.

Banyana Banyana are set to make their second appearance in the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand later this year.

The global showpiece will be held from 20 July-20 August. Banyana are in group G, alongside Argentina, Italy, and Sweden.

With such tough competition in their group, Ellis and her troops have been working hard to ensure that by the time the World Cup arrives, they are ready for their opponents.

HOW ELLIS CONTINUES TO PREPARE FOR THE WORLD CUP

Earlier this year, Banyana took part in the Turkish Women’s Cup as part of the World Cup preparations. Banyana won and drew against Uzbekistan and Slovenia, respectively. They finished first in their group.

With the next FIFA break around the corner, Banyana continues with their preparations for the World Cup. The AWCON champions will face a European opponent, Serbia, on 10 April.

As this will be the last friendly just before the World Cup. The 60-year-old told the SAFA media that her approach in this game is to perfect the team’s technical and tactical approach.

ELLIS ON THE GAME AGAINST SERBIA

“Look, in the previous camp we had very good opponents and in this camp we have got strong opponents as well.

“We have watched a couple of their games. They are very strong physically, very quick and hold the ball well.

“Last year in the qualifiers of the World Cup they beat Germany. So it’s not an easy team, it’s a difficult team and we want resistance.

“We are working on a couple of things on how to get ready for the World Cup and how we are going to approach the first game,” said Ellis.

Earlier this week on Monday, 27 March, Ellis assembled a team for a camp. According to SAFA, the focus this week was the conditioning and readiness of the players.

However, the official squad that will face Serbia will be announced on Friday, 1 March.

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