Ellis happy ahead of France clash
Banyana Banyana interim coach Desiree Ellis and her charges are in camp with former skipper Amanda Dlamini (right) back in the team for their friendly match against France in Saint-Denis, Reunion on Saturday.
Dlamini was left out of the team that took part in last year’s Africa Women Cup of Nations held in Cameroon due to other commitments. The midfielder, along with goalkeeper Monnye Theledi, have been called up to replace the injured Nompumelelo Nyandeni and Roxanne Barker respectively.
“We opted for Amanda Dlamini because of her experience after we lost the services of Nyandeni and when you play the likes of top nations like France, experience counts a lot. With limited time before the clash, we know what Amanda can do so it was a logical choice,” Ellis said.
“As for Theledi, she was identified at the 2016 Sasol League National Championship in Mossel Bay. We could have called up other goalkeepers who have been in the system before but we thought we have two quality goalkeepers and the third is unlikely to play, so it was best to bring Theledi in so she can get experience in the Banyana set-up. This in line with building for the future and increasing our pool of players.”
Despite the changes, Ellis said she was happy with what she had seen during training sessions.
“I think it went reasonably well for our first training session, considering we have just come back from a festive break.
“They were really enjoying themselves and didn’t want to stop. But the aim on the first day was to get the muscles going and just to give them a bit of a run, and they looked good.
“The focus was mainly on the finishing and it looked very encouraging,” added Ellis.
“We gave all the players a training programme to kick-start their year with (from January 4 until the start of camp), and from what we saw at training they followed it because they looked sharp. Everybody was motivated and that is a good sign.”
This will be the second meeting between the two nations having first met back in 2009 when France won 3-2.