25 February 2025 – Banyana Banyana wrapped up their two-match series against Lesotho on a winning note after beating the neighbouring country 2-0 in an international friendly played at the UJ Soweto Campus on Tuesday.
Coach Dr Desiree Ellis’ youthful charges picked up where they left off on Saturday – they beat the visitors 1-0 in the first international friend at the same venue – and raced to an early lead after Sibongile Ntoane opened the scoring in the fourth minute. The Sasol-sponsored South African senior women’s national team could have scored more goals as they continued to raid visiting goalkeeper Reitumetse Tuoane’s goal area. They were eventually rewarded when Unathi Simayile increased the lead just before the halftime break.
Dr Ellis said she took a lot of positives from the game and her youthful charges will learn from the experience gained during this camp.
“I think we started well, and then of course we stopped playing, so it’s easy to show that now, and then whatever we did in leading up to that goal, we didn’t do,” she said.
“We started running with the ball, started getting caught in possession, everyone, and we tried to tell them just to, because for many of these players, two games in quick succession like this, they’re not used to that.
“And with this being pre-season, we’re also tried to assist where we can, and that’s the reason also why we made so many changes, because we needed to look at other players.
“We tried to refresh the squad, started playing better again, and then obviously towards the end, the last 20 minutes, it was just tired legs, because many of them are not used to playing at this level.”
The team will assemble again next month as Dr Ellis continues to prepare the African champions for the defence of their title at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco in July.
