Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis admits there’s major room for improvement despite them beating Algeria to qualify for the 2022 Africa Women Cup of Nations in Morocco.
After the 2-0 win at home, South Africa finished the job with a 1-1 score in the second leg to secure their passageway to the continental spectacle that’s held every two years.
But Ellis was left unimpressed by their lack of composure in front of goal and the way they conceded the opening goal of the encounter.
“Our finishing was poor, we could have been three or four up before they scored the goal, also the defending for the goal we could have done better,” Ellis said after the game.
“The left-winger didn’t track back but this team has a lot of courage and this team knows we’ve been in this position before, we just needed to keep on playing.
“We felt they were not a threat except for the long balls they played and the set-pieces they had. And we urged the players not to give free kicks around the area and handled that very well.
“We always knew we were going to get a chance again, once the penalty went in we simply took control of the game and just played our game.
In the end, Algeria were chasing because they needed to chase, it wasn’t a great goal to give away but credit to them, they never gave up and fought to the bitter end.
“You have to give credit to the Algerians because even though we were 2-0 up and eventually 2-1 and 3-1 they kept on fighting. But I think the experience of having been here and in the team – I think that brought us to this point [of qualification].”
The biennial event will take place in North Africa between 3 and 23 July of this year.
