Desiree Ellis looking to slot in four games before WAFCON

There are two FIFA calendar periods left before the continental women’s championship kicks off in Morocco in July.

The Capetonian is waiting on the South African Football Association (SAFA) to confirm two matches per window – March/April and May/June.

Ellis was speaking after the two friendly fixtures against Lesotho at the University of Johannesburg Stadium on Tuesday.

South Africa won 1-0 and 2-0, respectively.

"We have a date FIFA, March, April, we have another FIFA date, May, June. We are looking at two friendlies and we are looking for SAFA to confirm that because we really want to play four more matches and then we want to obviously do our selection preparation as well as getting ready for WAFCON," Ellis said.

Ellis was satisfied with how her youthful team expressed themselves against Mehalalitoe by winning the two games, and without conceding.

The squad was made up of mainly U17 and U20 Women’s National Team players. She believes it was a worthwhile exercise.

READ:  Nasief Morris parts ways with UCT Ladies before season kicks off

"I think so, when you speak to the players, the first thing they said was, tough. They said it's not as easy as it looks from the outside, they said the intensity. So, we wanted to give them a taste of what it is to be in the national team because if and when they do come back it's not a shock,” the coach added.

“They'll know now that I need to go work, they know that when the more experienced players come in, the level is gonna be even higher. So, they know that they have to go work, they know that they have to get ready for that moment but we must also understand that it's preseason for many of them.

“Some's preseason started later than others and you can see, you can see that it started later than others so it was tough playing especially the last 20 minutes was tough because the legs were gone and through those injuries happened.

“At the end, we tried to manage the game but kids being kids, they wanna go and score another goal, they wanna play, so we were just trying to manage the legs as well but I'm happy with the overall exercise."