Botswana won’t be a soft touch, warns Ellis

With one win in the bag, Banyana Banyana will now be looking to kick on in the Cosafa Women’s Championship when they take on Botswana at the Wolfson Stadium on Friday (3.30pm).

Goals from Khanya Xesi and Nothando Vilakazi made sure the national side opened their Cosafa campaign on a high note on Wednesday.

Coach Desiree Ellis said she would use the single rest day – Thursday – to fine-tune the squad ahead of their crucial game against their neighbours.

“The game against Botswana is not going to be easy,” the 55-year-old coach and former Banyana midfielder said.

“We play them often enough. They know as much of us as we know of them.

“We have to prepare and plan very well, but most importantly we have to execute that plan.

“We remember last year’s tournament and we [won’t] take anything for granted.

“We are going to have a look at our game and have a look at the opposition, and see how we can plan and prepare.

“Now the next game becomes the most vital of all.”

Ellis said she was looking to improve the team all round and not focus on specific areas of play.

“Even if you think the defence played well, there is always room for improvement.

“So we are looking at improving the performance of the whole team and getting a lot more shots on target and goals.

“We don’t isolate any department because we want to be a team, not concentrate on one individual or one area of play,” Ellis said.

The squad spent a week in Port Elizabeth to acclimatise to the windy conditions

The coach said that had actually helped the team in the first 15 minutes of the game.

“Most of the balls we had to play on the ground because that is our strength, but we need to do that on a longer basis in the game, consistently.

“We will work towards that in playing our type of football on a consistency basis and continuously in the match.”

Speaking of their match against Madagascar, Ellis said: “I thought we started off very well. We passed the ball well at high speed and got the two goals after that we almost stopped playing.

“We lost concentration a lot of times. We ran with the ball when we said we needed to play the ball around.

“Then we conceded a very silly goal which I thought could have been avoided with a little bit more concentration and communicating at the back.

“Then it became a battle, but we got back into the dressing room and tried to settle things down.

“We then got a second yellow in the second half, but regrouped and had quite a lot of opportunities to score.

“We created a lot of opportunities, but their goalkeeper was player of the match – that says we hit a lot on target.

“However, I felt we could have finished a bit better.

“But I am very happy with the result.

“We can improve our performance, but we said the game was going to be difficult.

“When the group came out, we said the group is difficult, and first games are normally difficult, because both teams have not played any matches.

“You also have to give credit to Madagascar. They also harried and hassled us and put us under pressure.”