Poor finishing worries Ellis

Tshepo Ntsoelengoe

Banyana Banyana’s poor finishing is something that continues to be a major concern for head coach Desiree Ellis (above), but she hopes their new fishing training drill will help her players to be sharp-shooters and says it will also help goalkeepers to make saves.

The team assembled for a selection camp this week ahead of the Cosafa Women’s Cup to be held in the country next month where Banyana will be looking to defend the trophy they lifted after beating Zimbabwe 2-1 in the final last year.

“It would be naive to say we don’t want to win it (Cosafa Cup) because we are the defending champions and it gives us an opportunity to look at other players and to make our pool bigger.

“It will also help us to see where we are with our finishing. We have been working on a new innovation.

“We have a competition for scoring goals, but it is not only about that because it also helps goalkeepers with making saves. It is important that we continue working on finishing because it has been our biggest challenge,” said the Banyana mentor.

“We don’t want to go through back to the previous years (missing chances). We want to get more on target and with the Cosafa Cup, it’s added pressure at home.”

The squad has already had two training sessions and Ellis was delighted with the conditioning of her players.

“I am happy with the level of fitness. You can tell that the players are playing regularly with their respective teams. I think it is important to prepare even though there is a gap between now and when the tournament starts,” she added.