Cape Town — Only time will tell if Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis was talking the truth after she predicted the team, will play much better at next year's World Cup.
Ellis' comments followed after they suffered a 6-0 thumping by Brazil in Durban on Monday.
It must have sent shivers down the spine of the South African technical staff as Brazil, the world No 9 ranked team, ran roughshod over Banyana in the 6-0 drubbing. Apart from Friday's match which the South Africans lost 3-0, the only other time the team ran out against world-class opposition this year was in April when Banyana lost 5-1 to the Netherlands, who are world ranked No 6.
It was a coup of sorts that Safa managed to secure Brazil for Banyana to play two friendlies on home soil. It was high-quality opposition and would have been a great learning experience for the African champions.
It must be noted that African women's soccer is way behind the rest of the world. Africa's highest-ranked team at 47th is Nigeria, followed by SA at 54.
Eight goals later, the two matches exposed Banyana's limitations and served notice of the yawning gap in the playing standards of the two countries.
Games against Brazil and the Netherlands will indeed help Banyana improve. However, something more substantial needs to be done before Ellis can convince anyone that the team will play better at next year's showpiece in Australia and New Zealand.
"Come the World Cup, we will be way better because of games like this that will help us to grow and improve," said Ellis.
"More of these matches will definitely test us. We take the learning out of this, and we try to improve our fitness, our technical and tactical ability. We have shown in certain moments that we can play against these top teams.
"When I spoke to the players, I spoke about the Wafcon (Women's African Cup of Nations). I said: 'if you think that's the intensity you will be facing then you are highly mistaken, it's way up there’.
"Now a lot of players have had a taste of this, and they realise that we have got to improve.
"We have shown that we can play better, but it's got to be concentrated for the full 90 minutes. That only comes with playing more games like this.
"If we consistently play teams that will challenge us, that will force us to do certain things to make better decisions. We will also get better.
"It is a whole package. As I said, the World Cup is not tomorrow, but it is a good lesson. It has been a good learning experience and tells us that there's a lot of work to be done."
Given Ellis’ utterances, Safa will have to seek more world-class opponents for friendlies ahead of the World Cup for Banyana to improve.
IOL Sport