Banyana coach Ellis takes bitter Swede World Cup defeat on the chin

Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis says that she “can take a lot of positives” from their 2-1 defeat against Sweden in their opening 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup clash on Sunday.

South Africa, the lowest-ranked team in Group G (54th), grabbed an unexpected lead against the third-best in the world, Sweden, through a close-range tap-in from Hildah Magaia early in the second half at a wet Wellington Regional Stadium in New Zealand.

However, Sweden found the back of the net courtesy of Fridolina Rolfo following a poor defensive clearance by Lebohang Ramalepe.

It was first thought that the Banyana defender had scored an own goal, but the replay showed that Rolfo’s shin got the last touch before crossing the goal line.

Then, the Scandinavians shattered South African hearts in the 90th minute, finally getting it right on their 13th corner of the match as Amanda Ilestedt headed the winner from close range.

AS IT HAPPENED |  Women's World Cup: Banyana Banyana 1-2 Sweden

“I thought everything they threw at us we handled really well, and our transitions were really good, but our decisions in the final third could have been better on occasions, and we would have been in [on goal],” Ellis revealed during her post-match interview.

“When we scored, we still had control of the game. I think the own goal came at an unfortunate time and that put us back a bit.

"We always knew, physically, they were going to challenge us aerially, but throughout the game we handled that extremely well. I am really proud of the players. We had a game plan and we played accordingly to the game plan.

"But we didn’t take our chances really and, being the side that Sweden is with the players that they have and the resilience that they have, they kept coming but