Ellis displeased with Banyana performance despite big win

The score-line might look impressive, but Banyana Banyana’s performance in their second leg tie with Mozambique in the first round of the Caf Women’s Africa Cup of Nations wasn’t pleasing to the eye of head coach Desiree Ellis.

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Banyana smashed Mozambique 6-0 at the FNB Stadium in the return leg on Tuesday, with South Africa overall winning on 13-0 aggregate. But, Ellis wasn’t convinced with the display from her charges, stating that the team played well in their 7-0 victory in the first leg against the same opponents away from home.

Linda Motlhalo, who registered her 50^th cap for Banyana in the recent game scored four goals, after getting a brace in both legs to help the team saunter into the second and last round of the qualifiers.

“Look, I don’t think we did (execute the plan), I think we played much better in Mozambique. Our movement off the ball…we were very static, and in that way we kept on playing long balls which did not work for us. And we kept saying let’s build-up, let’s play and we wanted the two center-backs to get into the spaces and to effect change because they (Mozambique) sat very deep and it didn’t happen,” Ellis explained.

“Yes, we scored one (goal) from a set-piece, but if you look at the other goals we scored (in the first leg), it was well worked goals where we move the ball around and move the opponent around. We wanted more of that, but that didn’t happen. In the second half, we told the center-backs that they could make us play because they had so much space in front of them. And once again, we created many opportunities but we were not clinical in front of goals.”

Banyana will now face the winner between Algeria and Sudan in the final qualification round with dates and venues yet to be confirmed.