Banyana Banyana coach, Desiree Ellis, gave his side credit for showing courage and resilience following a defeat to Sweden in the FIFA Women’s World opening match.
Hildah Magaia opened the scoring on the 48th minute with Sweden scoring two late goals thanks to Fridolina Rolfo and Amanda Ilestedt.
“Well, we had a game plan and I thought it worked throughout [the game],” said Ellis after the match.
“I thought we were defensively very sound. We knew that they were going to be a challenge on set-pieces but I thought that we handled that very well.
“Our transitions could have been better, our decision making in the final third of the field, if that was better, we would speaking a different result now.
“As the game went on, we tried to make changes to make sure that we stand fast. But unfortunately, we conceded and to concede a goal right at the end was a bit cruel, but that is football.
“Even though it was a loss, we are very proud of how we played. We might not have had the preparation we wanted but the group of players we had showed resilience, they showed bravery, showed courage and throughout.
“But other than that, I’m very proud of how we played. We had a game plan, we knew what they were going to do, if we had taken our chance and made better decisions when we had two-vs-one.”
Banyana Banyana will travel to Dunedin to face Argentina in their second Group G encounter on 28 July 2023 at Dunedin stadium (kickoff-02:00am RSA time).