A matter of weight and see Birds make it to finals
BANYANA Banyana interim coach Desiree Ellis said she was disappointed with the conditioning of the players at the provincial Sasol League finals games which were held at Jan Smuts Stadium in East London over the weekend.
Ellis told the Daily Dispatch that she was on a scouting mission while the province's top eight teams in the Sasol League battled it out. She added that talent was not enough and that players had to shed some weight if they wanted to make the national team.
“I saw some very good players here today, but they were carrying a lot of weight. and that is a bit strange if you are looking at the teams.
“That's a challenge we face in the national team when we get new players.”
Ellis wouldn’t divulge the names of the players that she thought were worth following up on but said the Eastern Cape had plenty of potential among its players.
“There's a couple of young talented players that I saw and we have a provincial technical officer whom we will forward names to, so she can monitor them and see how they do in the next year or two.
“We are going around the country and what we see here might be better than what we'll see in another province and young aspiring players have got to try and be the best that they can be.”
She said technique was very important and so was understanding the game technically.
“Those are key things and when they play, they should play like it's their last game because they might never know whose watching.”
The Cosafa Cup-winning coach said there were many opportunities available through football such as tertiary bursaries and young girls should think more than just getting a call-up from her.
“It should not be about getting into the national team, but players should try and use football to better their lives.
“When I was playing 90% of the players were unemployed and now 90% have degrees.”
On Friday Ellis held a workshop with 10 Sasol League coaches where she explained the challenges faced by the national side when they get new players.
“We also showed them how we prepared for a single match that was against Burkina Faso and how we prepared for Cosafa Cup with 10 new players, and having to play back-toback games.
“The most important aspect of the workshop was to outline the selection criteria and sharing our finishing and warm-up drills,” Ellis said. THUNDERBIRDS were crowned Eastern Cape’s number one team following their stellar performance at the Sasol League provincial finals and will now prepare to represent the province at the national championships to be staged in Nelspruit in December.
The Dutywa-based Coastal Stream outfit hammered their Inland Stream counterparts Red Roses Ladies 3-1 at the Jan Smuts Stadium in East London over the weekend.
Thunderbirds closed with 38 points after having won 12 games and drawing two games, while Roses went home with 27 points after having won nine games while losing three.
“Roses played really well and when they got a chanc to score they buried it. We created many chances and managed to convert three goals,” Thunderbirds coach Thembalethu Apleni said.
“One of our influential strikers Zimasa Dekeda is in Burundi with Basetsana and Lisakhanya Mayisele – my right back is busy with her final exams but I'm just happy my players were able to pull through.
“In the second half we had a tough time but we were able to control the game but then our fitness counted against us and I must admit we were not fit at all.”
Apleni said if they were to go to the nationals with their poor fitness levels they would only be fooling themselves and had to make sure they worked on conditioning their players.
The national champs will begin on December 5 and will conclude on December 10 and the winning team will lift the Sasol League national trophy.
Results: Cumakala Ladies 2 Sophakama 0, Birmingham City Ladies 5 Executive Ladies 2; Amanqilo Birds 2 City Lads Ladies 13; Thunderbirds Ladies 3 Red Roses 1.