Sasolin Sport BANYANA Banyana secured a 1-0 victory over neighbours Lesotho on Saturday. X Sasolin Sport
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THE two wins against Lesotho left Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis with some satisfaction about her approach to the 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) preparations.
On Saturday Banyana won 1-0 and on Tuesday they secured a 2-0 victory. Both matches we played at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto campus.
THE two wins against Lesotho left Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis with some satisfaction about her approach to the 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) preparations.
On Saturday Banyana won 1-0 and on Tuesday they secured a 2-0 victory. Both matches we played at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto campus.
In this camp, Ellis had a young squad made up of national U17 and U20 players.
“We’re happy with the growth and progress this week. It will take a while but it will get better. It’s a young group of players but the enthusiasm is there, the commitment is there. It will take time to get the best out of them,” said Ellis after the Tuesday friendly.
“There is huge potential but it will take some time to get them to the next level. One week is not enough, it is very little to learn so many things but they can be proud with the progress they made this week.”
Sharing the coach’s sentiments was Katlego Moletsane who captained the side.
“It is very exciting having a young group like this and seeing them push through for 90 mins. It is very exciting to have them as (their) captain. From our meetings, the players had a chance to say what it was that they wanted. And I think they executed most of what they wanted; to score, keep a clean sheet to show more aggression going forward,” said Moletsane.
Moletsane was also excited by the squad rotation.
“It really helps to get experience, to get game time and the experience of playing with overseas-based players. It also helps with the depth of the squad to have young players meeting up with seniors. It will make a difference going forward for each (of us) to know who they are playing with,” said Moletsane.
Banyana will in July head to Morocco with their only mission to become only the second nation to defend the Wafcon. Only Nigeria has ever done that.
The African champions, crowned in Morocco in 2022, are drawn in group C against Ghana, Mali and Tanzania. Ghana, with its rich footballing tradition, will be aiming to return to the top.
Meanwhile Mali and Tanzania will be eager to prove their ability to compete with the continent’s best.
Ellis was quoted by the SABC saying that she is waiting on the South African Football Association (Safa) to confirm four more friendlies for the March/April and May/June international Fifa window.
"We have a Fifa date, March/April, we have another Fifa date, May/June. We are looking at two friendlies and we are looking for Safa to confirm that because we really want to play four more matches and then we want to obviously do our selection preparation as well as getting ready for Wafcon," Ellis said.