Three first half goals and a brace in the second stanza were enough to see the Netherlands run away 5-1 winners over the visiting Banyana Banyana on Tuesday night (12 April 2022) in the city of Den Haag (The Hague).
The South Africans were using this match to prepare for July’s Africa Women Cup of Nations tournament in Morocco.
Captain of the day Thembi Kgatlana scored Banyana Banyana’s solitary goal.
Head coach Desiree Ellis was not impressed with some of the things she saw in the game.
“At times our defending let us down, we created a few chances but conceded in crucial times when it looked like we were back in the game. We had opportunities but we did not take them – the missed penalty could have helped us had we scored,” said Ellis on SAFA.net
“Had we trusted ourselves enough more on the ball and taken our chances, we would have been back in the game. At times we gave it away unnecessarily. We had said we wanted to see how the team plays under pressure, and knew that we were going to be tested – and we were duly tested, physically and mentally.”
Ellis has also bemoaned the fitness levels of players as the domestic league – the Hollywoodbets Super League has not kicked off yet.
“We hoping the domestic league start very soon so players can get game time. We were playing here against a team that just came off qualifiers (Netherlands beat Cyprus 12-0 in a World Cup qualifier on Friday, 8 April 2022) – they had their best players on the park in the first half, and at times we managed to contain them, but towards the end it was just tiredness. They sped up the game, and our fitness levels are nowhere where they should be, we six weeks further on from the Algeria game but a big thanks to all the club coaches because most teams played friendlies and tournaments to help improve on the fitness,” added Ellis.
The former Banyana Banyana captain says played well in patches and that did not help them as they were playing against a top nation where a slight mistake is punished.
“We didn’t handle the set pieces very well – we need to go back and check if it is individual mistakes or the group. Yes we know we are not as tall and physical as most teams, but we need to organise that better. We are not happy with the score line but I believe we played in patches and showed what we needed to do but we didn’t trust ourselves enough,” she said.
“But at this point it was about moments, and they played the moments better than us. We had moments to change the game we didn’t, we had moment s to score, we didn’t and when they had the moment they scored – and that is the difference at this level, and we needed this test early on to test ourselves to get ready for AWCON.”
The 5-1 score line is not what they desired but the match has left them enough food for thought.
By Matlhomola Morake
