Sweden is not a closed book to Banyana Banyana - Desiree Ellis

This is according to Banyana’s head coach Desiree Ellis, as she was addressing the international media on the eve of their meeting against the third-world-ranked country in senior women’s football.

It will be the second official international match between the two teams after they clashed at the Olympic Games in London 11 years ago. Ellis also recalls playing against them in an international friendly recently.

"We've played Sweden. We played them in 2016 at the Olympics. We've had friendlies against them and we always seem to play Sweden. We know a lot about each other. They've analysed us, we've analysed them and we are feeling very confident," Ellis said.

"We've worked very well over the last couple of weeks on how to be better in certain areas and we are looking forward to the game tomorrow."

Captain Refiloe Jane has also emphasized the importance of opening the tournament on a positive note, especially against the highest-ranked team in Group G, as they look to make a meaningful impact in their second World Cup.

"It's a difficult game that we are gonna play against Sweden. One of the toughest games probably in our group. Like we've played them before, it will not be easy but the preparations have been going very well from the time we've qualified for the World Cup up to this day," Jane said.

"I think we've done what we have to do as a team and we are all looking forward to the game tomorrow and we are hoping for a good result based on the preparations that we've put in."

The good news for Banyana going to this game is that there’s a clean bill of health in the squad, giving Ellis a headache in deciding on her starting XI. She’s also raving about the form of star player and US-based attacker Thembi Kgatlana, who has been out of action for a very long period but scored in the last warm-up match, during the 2-0 win over Costa Rica last weekend.

"Yes, it was a good outing against Costa Rica. A win also gives us a lot of confidence and momentum. If you look at the previous game that we lost to Serbia. Thembi has done really well leading up to that. 

I've been in contact with Thembi the whole time since January, also with the club's conditioning coach. So, we were up to date with how far Thembi was. 

I think the spirit is very high if you had been at our team building session last night, you would have seen how high the spirit is and hot together the team is. 

We have no injury concerns at the moment. Everybody's got a clean bill of health and that is really great for us."