Banyana coach Ellis says players look sharp after first training session

Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis says her players looked sharp after having their first proper training session on Thursday.  

Banyana take on 12th ranked Australia in what will be their second friendly after facing Brazil in preparation for the FIFA Women's World Cup next year. Ellis was pleased to get the first session out of the way.  

"I think the session went really well, we worked on a few things that we need to be better at," said Ellis. 

Ellis says that there was not much time to work on everything, but she wants her side to put up a better fight than the collapse the players had against Brazil. 

"The players looked really sharp. We have one more session which is a match-day minus one at the stadium, and we really look forward to going there because we want to be better than what we were against Brazil. There's a lot of things we worked on in the short space of time, unfortunately we couldn't work on everything.  

"Defensively we have got to be more organised, we need to make sure we cover each other and minimise our mistakes."    

With some of the players only arriving on Friday due to unforeseen circumstances, Ellis is happy for them to be back and part of the camp.  

"It was good to get Jermanine (Seoposenwe) and Linda (Motlhalo) in camp, so everybody is in camp now, Hilda (Magaia) arrived yesterday and Thato (Letsoso) as well.  

Ellies was asked about Brighton player Faith Nokuthula, who received her first call-up to the Banyana set-up. Ellis was full of praise for the 20-year-olds qualities, but says it was just one session.  

"She trained, was calm on the ball, her passing was good and I am impressed. It was one session, but she showed her qualities," concluded Ellis.