Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis says her side has prepared for Friday’s do-or-die Women’s World Cup clash against Argentina, where victory would give them an excellent chance of reaching the next stage but defeat likely end their dreams Down Under.
Following the 2-1 loss to world No 3 Sweden, where they conceded in the 90th minute, Ellis says they showed enough in that game to give them confidence going into the Argentina clash.
WHAT DO YOU TAKE OUT OF THE SWEDEN GAME AND INTO THIS ONE?
After such a magnificent performance against Sweden, we take a lot of positives from that, we were defensively very sound until the end, but also created numerous opportunities.
It is a must win against Argentina, but we also need to score goals to give us a realistic chance of going through (to the round of 16). We have worked on how we can be better in the final third, we are always going to create chances, so we have worked on our finishing.
When players are in a better position, we have to make sure we get to them, which is not always the case because as a striker you want to score.
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ARGENTINA?
We know a lot about Argentina, we saw in the game against Italy (a 1-0 win for Italy) it was very physical. So obviously we have to move the ball around quicker.
They do have players that are very skillful, but we know that a lot of our goals are scored on the counterattack, that is our strength. If we can get that right, we will score goals.
The first thing is not to concede, in some games we have conceded early leading up to the World Cup, so we want to stay compact for the first 15 minutes.
We have worked a lot on what we are good at, but also not good at, which is defending without the ball and I thought against Sweden we did that very well.
It will not be easy, Argentina are a good side, but if we play our own game, create the chances and put them away, we will get a positive result.
KAYLIN SWART VS ANDILE DLAMINI AS GOALKEEPER, WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE FORMER AGAINST SWEDEN?
We felt we would be a little bit under pressure and Kaylin is the better distributer. And that did help us. Not only did she get us on the front foot, but we won that second ball (from her distribution).
It is up to the other goalkeepers to raise their hands. They all support each other, and they know that anyone at any time must be ready to step up.
IT IS GETTING INTO DO-OR-DIE TERRITORY FOR YOU …
It is a game we must win. It is our ‘final’ and we can’t look any further than that game, because everything else does not matter at the moment. We have got a plan, and we have to execute that plan to get the right result.
This team has matured so much in the last few years and got so much better mentally as well. They have fought through battles and challenges. We were brave and courageous (against Sweden), and there is more that people haven’t seen.
The chances we create, we have to be a bit more clinical than in the last game and then things will come right.
