Banyana Banyana target Turkish Cup for World Cup confidence

South Africa are scheduled to face hosts Turkey this Wednesday before taking on Uzbekistan on 18 February and Venezuela three days later. The tournament has been in massive jeopardy since the deadly earthquake in that region and neighbouring Syria over a week ago.

The South African Football Association (Safa) confirmed at the weekend they have not made a final decision on Banyana's participation.

However, Ellis says pulling out of the tournament would not be ideal, especially with the Fifa Women's World Cup just around the corner.

"If anything happens, we might only get an answer on the very last minute. We cannot waste this opportunity. We only have two Fifa dates. They've taken away the January Fifa date, and they've taken away the June Fifa date so we only have two Fifa dates where we can bring in players from abroad. It will definitely be a big blow not going to the Turkish Cup," she said.

The reigning Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) champions suffered a 3-0 and 6-0 defeat to Brazil, ranked 9th in the Fifa rankings, on home soil in September 2022 and a 4-1 drubbing to 12th-placed Australia a month later.

Slovenia are the strongest opponent in the Turkish Cup at 43rd, Uzbekistan are 49th, and Venezuela are the closest challenger to Banyana, who are 54th at 52nd.

Ellis believes these teams will provide the competition needed to build confidence for July's tournament in Australia and New Zealand, where Sweden (3rd), Italy (17th) and Argentina (29th) await.

"It's also about building confidence, you don't want to play top teams all the time. You also want to see what you have learned from playing these top teams, what do you bring back now playing against teams that are close to your ranking? To see what they've learnt and how you can develop and grow further because it's a step-by-step thing, we've got to be ready when we go to the World Cup," she added.

Meanwhile, Andile Dlamini, Kayla Swart, Regirl Ngobeni, and Katlego Moletswane are the four goalkeepers in the preliminary squad, but only three will make the trip to Turkey.

Mamelodi Sundowns’ Dlamini has been the number-one choice in recent times, and Ellis has brought in standout performers in 2022 and 2021 to ensure no player becomes complacent.  

"Obviously when we have camp set at home and we are able to have bigger squads we will bring in more players, more goalkeepers because we want to make sure that that one is covered. It's a specialist position so we urge the clubs out there to get goalkeeper coaches because all the work is done at clubs. For us, it's important because you get a week to prepare and, in that week, if a goalkeeper is lacking certain basics, it's not going to happen in that week," she concluded.