Ellis lauds Zambia after Banyana’s poor showing

It was a disappointing result for Banyana Banyan following their 3-0 loss to Zambia in a friendly match on Saturday in Lusaka, and coach Desiree Ellis admits that things didn’t really go well for her charges leading to their last round of the Caf Women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Algeria at home on Friday.

Banyana struggled to handle the Copper Queen’s Barbara Banda, who scored a brace, while the other goal  was scored by Avell Chitundu, with all the goals being scored in the first half, but the South Africans failed to make any reply.

With the squad that faced Zambia filled with locally based players and only one overseas based player in Hilda Magaia, Ellis says the encounter gave her some insight on her players and says she is expecting some of her abroad players to join the camp for the Algeria game.

“I think we didn’t pitch today (Saturday), we said they are going to try to find Barbara and it happened the way we said it. But we didn’t cover each other, we didn’t cope with the long balls, with the first goal, we played her onside. When we had the ball, we didn’t have players available to play the ball. Sometimes when you play you have one department that is not working, but all our departments are not working,” said the Banyana coach after the match.

“Credit to coach Bruce Mwape, his team came in hard from the start, they put us under pressure and it worked for them. So, we have to go back (to the drawing board), we have more players coming. But, this was a game where we wanted to test players we brought in, players who are coming back from injury and see how far we can take them. Some have passed the test, some of them did not. So, it was good that we played this match to see what we need to work on going forward.”

The squad is set to arrive back in the country on Sunday to continue with their preparations for the Algeria clash, with the return leg set for 23 February.