Misses hurt us, says Ellis

Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis feels her side’s goalless draw with Slovakia in their opening Group C match at the Cyprus Women’s Cup was points dropped, having wasted a lot of chances at the Tassos Markou Stadium on Wednesday.

The coach saw her charges hit the post once while there were a couple of excellent chances for striker Thembi Kgatlana (above) in the 21st and 72nd minutes, but the new Houston Dash player could not capitalise.

“We had a few nervy moments in the beginning, but on the other hand, our offensive play with oneon-ones with the goalkeeper left us with a bad taste in our mouths. We keep talking about the same story of missing chances, and we also hit the post in the first half,” said Ellis.

“It was points dropped for us because we were nervous in the first few minutes but we managed to get over that and controlled the most part of the match and created chances. Our decision-making in the final third was not on point and the final ball was not good.”

Going back to when they played Sweden and lost 3-0 last month, with the game against the Slovaks their second match of the year, Ellis believes there has been some improvement from her players and she was happy with the new players who managed to fit in well with the rest of the squad.

“Overall the performance showed we have progressed as a group,” she said.