Barbra Banda showed her class as she scored two goals to guide Zambia to a convincing 3-0 victory over Banyana Banyana in the international at the Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka on Saturday (12 February.
Avell Chitundu also got on the scoresheet – with all goals coming in the first half.
South Africa’s head coach Desiree Ellis made six changes in the second to try and change the complexion of the game but nothing worked on the day for her side.
“We didn’t pitch today. We spoke that they were going to try and find Barbara and it happened the way we said it. But we didn’t cover each other, we didn’t cope well with the long ball. The first goal we played onside. When we had the ball we didn’t have players available to play it, sometimes when you play you have one department not working but this time all the departments were not working,” said a disappointed Ellis.
Despite not affecting the score line, the visitors had a much better second half.
“Credit to coach Bruce his team came out from the start putting us under pressure and it worked for them. It was good we played this match to see what we still need to work on going forward. They didn’t allow us to play, we then changed the formation slightly so we could get more hold of the ball in the middle, and it happened,” added Ellis.
“We had one or two half chances and we didn’t take them – and that is what the game is about. In the second half we had more control, we handled the situation better and had a much better second half but it was not good enough. We were very poor today – not good enough on the basis of what we worked on, where we come from and where we are and it is clear that some of the players still have a long way to go.”
For Zambia this was as much-needed result before taking on Namibia in the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations qualifier.
Head coach Bruce Mwape was pleased with this side performance but adds that they are not where they want to be.
“First half played very well, second we struggle especially upfront, their defence was solid. South Africa is tactically good, they are able to hold position for some time, which is our problem as a team. We can play a few touches here and there but there were a lot of breakdowns, so we need to improve on the ball possession,” said Mwape.
“If we can hold the ball for some time it will help us a lot because we will be able to create spaces and we have strikers with speed, which is one of our weapons. In terms of fitness, we are not hundred percent yet, we are probably on about 50 to 60 percent and need to improve on that. We wanted to look at the game fitness – general fitness can be there but if you see how we played, very few showed that they can last 90 minutes.”
Ellis handed new caps to Anthonia Maponya of the University of the Western Cape and Thalea Smidt of Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies.
Banyana Banyana travel back to South Africa on Sunday, 12 February 2022.
There will be no time to break from camp as they will continue with preparations for their upcoming crucial Africa Women’s Cup of Nations qualifier against Algeria.
The fixture will take place on Friday, 18 February with the second leg set for Algeria on Wednesday, 23 February.
By Matlhomola Morake
