Ellis bullish over Banyana's World Cup preparations

With less than 100 days to go to the finals Down Under, Banyana wrapped up their final international window with just one friendly international away to Serbia last week. In total, the women's senior national side have played just six matches since booking their spots at a second successive global showpiece by winning the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) in Morocco. 

With no more Fifa breaks between now and the week leading up to the opening World Cup fixture on 18 July, Ellis remains confident they can complete preparations for the expanded tournament of 32 participants, up from 24 in France 2019.

"The window is actually not in June, they've taken that window out. They've also taken the window out in January. But there's a window just before our first game in New Zealand, from the 10th to the 18th [July]. That is when players that are in season are released unless the countries they participate in are at the World Cup and they going to be released sooner. 

“But we are looking at having another five-day camp like we did now in April, in May, and looking at having a longer camp in June. 

In between that, our conditioning coaches are engaging with other conditioning coaches from the clubs and even coaches to make sure we can supplement what they're already doing because there's already a vast improvement in the fitness level of the players", Ellis said.

The coach acknowledges the strides made by players to improve their physical readiness, which was evident in the narrow 2-1 defeat to Serbia last week, ahead of what will be a gruelling test at the World Cup.

"Of course, we can get a little fitter than what we currently are, but it's a huge improvement. We were still making runs into the box in the 90+ minutes, and that is what you want to see. There was one incident where we had gone up for an attacking corner and when they got the ball, everybody [was] sprinting back to try to get into position. 

So we all know what's at stake so, those are the things that we still need to fine-tune and make sure we're in better physical condition, but also tactically and technically better.” 

In pinpointing some of the key areas they still intend to work on, Ellis earmarked defensive organisation as one of the focus areas ahead of facing the likes of Sweden, Italy, and Argentina in Group G.