Banyana Banyana of South Africa coach Desiree Ellis has outlined what they must do if they want to catch up with Nigeria when it comes to Women’s football.
The current African champion succumbed to the firepower of the Super Falcons in the final round of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games qualifier.
Ellis admitted that playing against teams from the COSAFA region is not enough to stop Nigeria.
”The reason why I said I’m not taking too far ahead, is because there’s a lot of FIFA dates coming up in between and hopefully the Wafcon, what the team would like to do is to defend it. It’s always easy to win it but it is more difficult to defend it.
”We have to consistently get regular camps, like we have done in the past. We need to get regular good oppositions, that’s the only way we can test ourselves and grow,” said Ellis.
It’s no secret that some of the Banyana players who were part of the WAFCON winning side two years ago as well as the 2023 World Cup are getting older and must now make way for the next generation.
”With all due respect, if Nigeria is ranked number 1 and we are ranked number 2 – is to make sure that when you go to the Cosafa cup, you take a team that will gain experience, and make sure you get many games so you can test players,” added Ellis.
