Banyana coach Ellis takes lessons from Japan drubbing

Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis is adamant that they learnt valuable lessons from their 5-0 drubbing by Japan, who are ranked fifth in the world, in a friendly in Osaka on Saturday.

Banyana and Japan will face-off again in another friendly at the same venue, Yanmar Hanasaka Stadium, on Tuesday, as Ellis’ ladies prepare for the upcoming Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) to be staged in Morocco from July 25 to August 16.

At Wafcon Banyana, who are ranked 58th in the world, are in Group B with Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Tanzania.

“Look, we learn more out of a defeat than what we learn out of a win. A lot of lessons to be learnt and they [Japan] were excellent today...they pounced on every mistake and they were clinical in front of goal,” Ellis said.

“We had a couple of half chances, maybe with better decision-making, we could have scored at least one, but you can’t fault the effort. I think the effort was there, just that we played against a team that was pretty excellent today.”

The Banyana coach insisted that Japan gave them the kind of test they wanted ahead of Wafcon.

“This is a test that we want to be able to see what we need to fix. They really tested us. We played a lot of West African countries who play long balls and are physical,” Ellis said.

“Over the last two years, we played North Africa countries like Morocco and Algeria that are good on the ball, but also give you that physicality, and now we’re playing against a team that moves the ball around and you need to be tactically disciplined.”