Serbia exhibition clash exposes Banyana’s weak spots

With the Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand kicking off in three months, Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis has emphasised that her team needs to work on their defending of set pieces. 

Monday’s 3-2 loss to Serbia at the Sportski Centar Fss exposed Banyana’s inability to defend high balls as two goals they conceded came from corners, while the third came as a result of their failure to clear a cross. 

Serbia scored three goals via Violeta Slović, Milica Mijatović, and Jovana Damnjanović within 22 minutes. The Serbs dominated SA physically and used high balls to put pressure on Banyana's defence. Credit must go to Banyana, they settled in the match as it opened up and played their game and grabbed two goals through Hildah Magaia and Jermaine Seoposenwe. 

Reflecting on the game, Ellis noted that they needed to work on their setpieces and not give their Group G opponents Sweden, Italy and Argentina at the world cup any advantage over them.

“We need to go back and have a look at the setpieces and how we can do that better,” Ellis told the Banyana media department in Stara Pazova, Serbia. 

“There’s still some stuff to work on because it’s a process, we want to be at our absolute best at the world cup. We need to go back and look at the setpieces and make sure it was a player not picking up and see how we can work on that and make sure it does not happen in the future,” she said. 

Positives for Ellis from the exhibition match were how her team applied the instructions from the coaching staff and them playing for each other.

“It’s exciting and encouraging to see that what we worked on,  a lot of it came together. In the second half, there was one moment we pushed up for a corner and lost the ball, our players sprinted back to get into position, and that shows the willingness to work and play for the team, which was important.

“With regard to the performance, we showed not just a lot of character but we showed we can play, we created opportunities and we put them on the back foot. And that for us was important, seeing the player absorb what we trained them in the last two weeks and put that into practice,” Ellis said.