Serbia friendly will assess quality of Banyana’s preparation, says Dlamini

Banyana Banyana continue their preparation for the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup with an international friendly against Serbia on Monday and goalkeeper Andile Dlamini says the outing will help them to see where they are as a team. 

Banyana arrived in Serbia on Friday and they have been preparing at the Sports Centre Of The Football Association of Serbia for the clash on Easter Monday. The match will be played at the SC FA of Serbia-Stara Pazova.  

Dlamini said the players appreciate a friendly match as they need to be adequately prepared for the World Cup to be hosted by Australia and New Zealand in July. 

“The friendly match against Serbia is very important for our preparations for the World Cup. It is a match which will help us to improve and to prepare ourselves mentally ahead of the tournament,” said the Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies shot-stopper. 

“You can’t go into a tournament like the World Cup without playing friendly matches. In that regard, this is an important match for us and it will help us to see where we are at, which areas to improve and where we can strengthen.” 

The Serbia match may be the last competitive friendly match for Banyana but Dlamini is not too concerned there may not be more preparation matches. 

“For the players it is not much of a worry, as players we will have our individual programmes. We showed during the Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon), we went there and won the tournament without even playing a single friendly match. 

“Mentally we just have to be strong and work hard, it is not much of a worry and the only thing that we need to focus on is ourselves. I believe that each and every player here believes the same way and we trust what the technical team has put in place for us.” 

Dlamini was part of the Banyana team that went to the previous World Cup in France and she said it was a good learning experience that may come in handy this time around. 

“The first World Cup was incredible for us, we went there for experience and we learnt that the game has much improved. The World Cup is the highest level and mentally we are switched on and we understand the demands. 

“The lesson that we have learnt from the previous World Cup is that the speed of play is on a different level. You make sure that you focus on the task at hand, which is the group stages. 

“We must make sure that we perform to the best of our abilities and make the country proud.” 

Banyana had a three-day camp ahead of the trip to Serbia and coach Desiree Ellis was impressed with the boxes they were able to tick. 

 “I think it was a worthwhile and fruitful exercise bringing in the players early and working on some things that we needed to work on. I think it really helped us,” she said. 

“We had a bit of a break with players going back to play (in the Hollywoodbets Super League) and when they returned we could see players showing up. Nicole Michael scored a hat-trick, Thubelihle Shamase scored a bicycle kick and Katlego Moletsane did well as a goalkeeper. This is what we want to see when players go back to their clubs.” 

Ellis was also impressed with the commitment of the players. 

“The attitude, the work rate and effort was all there. We worked a lot and could see slowly but surely, the improvements. Now we go to the next part of the camp where we travel to Serbia and we meet the overseas-based players.” 

Bambanani Mbane will join the team in Serbia on Saturday after her departure was delayed by a family bereavement.