Safa did well to secure friendlies against world-class opponents like Brazil and Australia, but they need to do far more to help this team prepare adequately for next year’s World Cup, writes Herman Gibbs.
Cape Town – South Africa’s national women’s team Banyana Banyana were handed a reality check in their 4-1 pasting at the hands of Australia in an international friendly in England over the weekend.
The 4-1 scoreline does not accurately reflect Australia’s supremacy in the match, as the Matildas led the shots-on-goal count 18-1, with the corner count equally one-sided at 9-0.
By half-time, the 12th world ranked Australians, with a 3-0 lead, had already decided the match as a contest.
✍️📝
Back to the drawing board for Banyana Banyana after Australia defeat https://t.co/i790mugd9J
— Banyana_Banyana (@Banyana_Banyana) October 10, 2022
In the second half, they reduced it to a proverbial walk in the park and made six substitutions. Despite enjoying 65% of the possession, they managed only one more goal thereafter.
This Banyana team has now played three matches and conceded 13 goals. In each of these matches, they have been outplayed and their limitations have been exposed.
Six weeks ago, the matches against ninth-ranked Brazil ended 3-0 and 6-0.
It appears that coach Desiree Ellis knows what must be done. Ellis has, to her credit, pointed out that winning in Africa is vastly different to winning elsewhere in the world.
The SA Football Association did well to secure friendlies against world-class opponents like Brazil and Australia, but they need to do far more to help this team prepare adequately for next year’s World Cup.
For starters, Banyana were hamstrung during this period by red tape and several players have not been made available. This is inexcusable and Safa should take steps now to prevent this occurrence.
Perhaps the best person to oversee this process in the future will be Walter Steenbok, Safa’s new technical director.
The blame can also be laid at the door of chief executive Tebogo Motlanthe.
Given his position, Steenbok should take the initiative to form a think tank to plot the way forward. That group should include at least one person who knows what it takes to have a women’s team play at the highest level.
Australia have such a person in their coach Tony Gustavsson of Sweden. Prior to his appointment in 2020, the 49-year-old worked for six years with the US women’s team, who have been far and away the most successful team in international women’s soccer; and who have won four World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals.
Safa are also obsessed with the idea of having all SA nationals as coaches of national teams, and have extracted great mileage for this.
What Safa should rather be obsessed with is finding the best available coaches, irrespective of nationality, for all the national teams.
Given the complexities of SA society, national sport already has its restrictions and there is no need to add more. My information is that the advertisements for coaches have been open and not restricted to South Africans.
After each of the last three matches, Ellis has pointed out the team’s shortcomings. There was little time between the Brazil and Australia matches, and the problem areas were not addressed. To add insult to injury, Ellis had to work with several players who were fringe squad members, rather than first-choices.
Banyana fans will be waiting with bated breath to hear what plans are in place to prevent this team from repeating the ignominious feat of the 2019 World Cup team that failed to win a match and bombed out in the group stage.
@Herman_Gibbs
