Desiree Ellis, South Africa head coach, has talked about Bayana Bayana’s chase of fresh history at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.
 |
| South Africa Women’s Team head coach, Desiree Ellis. Photo: Getty Images |
The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 will be hosted in Australia and New Zealand.
In her interview with FIFA+, Coach Ellis said, “it’s not going to be easy”, however, “we’ll be amazing at this world cup”.
Coach Ellis made history when she became the first manager to lead South Africa to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019.
She also led South Africa to their first CAF Women’s Africa Cup Of Nations (WAFCON) triumph last year, defeating hosts, Morocco 2-1 in the final in Rabat, and went ahead to emerge CAF Women’s Coach Of The Year.
South Africa Women Football Team (Bayana Bayana) head coach, Desiree Ellis interview with FIFA+ (fifa.com):
Desiree, you’re going to the World Cup as African champions this time. Do you feel that changes anything for you?
Look, I think it’s fantastic to be going with something on our back. But the expectations are going to be even higher now. I think we have matured as a group over the last four years, and I think the team has got better. We’ve have more players abroad now than we did in 2019, and those players have improved from playing in better leagues. Our own national league is also slowly but surely getting better.
The standards across the world have gone up, and this time only the top two teams from each group will go through.
When Thembi got injured, I think the whole country went into shock. But other players stepped up and we showed that we could cope with that, with an outbreak of COVID in the camp, with 60,000 people shouting against us. We now have a sports psychologist and I do feel that, mentally, this team has grown so much.
Was that situation with Thembi a good lesson for the team ahead of this World Cup, in that it allowed them to see they could suffer a setback and still…
I do remember when Thembi got injured there was a bit of a sombre mood. Thembi herself was very brave though. She stood up and said, ‘Look, we’re still on track’. And I was really happy that she was there when we qualified for the World Cup. Seeing her at the end, on video, dancing on one leg just showed how together we were and how connected we were.
How do you feel preparations for the World Cup have been going?
There are things we need to improve – our ratio of shots on target, for example – but I’m really happy in a lot of respects.
I think if we can close that gap between our local players and the players from abroad, we’ll be amazing at this World Cup.
We know it’s not going to be easy. But we’ve seen it at the men’s World Cup that nothing is cast in stone. I don’t think Morocco was one of the favourites to get out of their group, but they almost ended up winning the tournament because they believed in what they were doing.
Is qualifying for the knockout stage the big goal? And do you see that as a realistic ambition?
We need to have that ambition. We know it’s a difficult group but it would be absolutely fantastic if we could achieve that. For me, it’s all about that first game (versus Sweden on 23 July). That sets the tone for the rest of the tournament and we know it doesn’t get much tougher than the team we’re playing. Sweden are not No3 in the world for nothing.
Can I ask you about the changes in your squad? Your captain at the last World Cup, Janine van Wyk, has been among those left out recently. Has that been a…
We’ve been doing this for a while now, bringing in players to introduce them to international football and see what they can do at this level. We never close the door to any player and we know what Janine can do, and the quality she brings. But we also need to have a look at what’s there next and, with South Africa bidding for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, it’s important we build and make sure we have a competitive squad in four years’ time.
Finally, it has been decided that your team base camp will be in the New Zealand capital of Wellington. With two of your games there and another in…
I am, although we went to do some site visits to Wellington after the draw in October and it was freezing! (laughs) I cannot even comprehend how cold it’s going to be in July in the middle of winter! But it will be fantastic to have our base camp there to get used to that weather and adapt to the time difference, which will be a challenge for all the teams coming from Europe and Africa.
