Ellis lambastes Banyana after away drubbing

Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis lambasted her side’s performance after their 3-0 defeat to Zambia in Lusaka at the weekend, saying they were bad in all departments.

The match was over in the first half as the Zambians put three past goalkeeper Andile Dlamini. A brace from star Barbra Banda and a goal from Avell Chitundu were enough to give the Copper Queens a win at the Nkoloma Stadium. 

Reflecting on the match, Ellis picked her side apart, noting they were second in every department and failed to execute the instruction for marking Banda. 

"I think we didn't pitch. We said that they are going to find Barbra and it happened the way we said it. We didn't cover for each other; we didn't cope well with the long balls. For the first goal we played her onside," said Ellis. 

"When we had the ball, we didn't have players available to play the ball. Sometimes when you play, you have one department that's not working but all the departments were not working. 

"They came out from the start, putting us under pressure and it worked for them. 

"It was also a game to test players that were coming back from injury; some of them passed the test and others did not," she said. 

Despite the loss, the match served its purpose of preparing the team for their clashes against Algeria in the African Women’s Cup of Nations (Awcon) qualifiers.

Getting match fitness and testing the team without the international-based players were the things Ellis wanted to look into during the Zambia friendly. 

"We wanted to test the players that we brought in. This is the only way you can test them and see if you can take them to the next level. 

"I think it helped us a lot, showing us who we can take forward and what we need to improve on because we were poor in all departments today," she said.