Banyana Banyana Coach Desiree Ellis says her team will be looking for a different challenge when they face Asian Champions, Japan, in the two friendly matches in Osaka in the next few days.<\/p>\n
The two matches form part of Banyana\u2019s Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) preparations, with the first taking place on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The two matches against a top-tier nation are ideal preparation for the WAFCON, which takes place in Morocco in July and August.<\/p>\n
The tournament has significant importance as it serves as a qualifier for the 2027 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup in Brazil.<\/p>\n
South Africa (SA) has played against mostly West and North Africans recently, and just last month they faced Algeria in Durban in back-to-back friendly games, winning both. Coach Desiree Ellis says they will be looking for a different challenge against the Asian Champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have played a lot of West African countries, two North Africans and gave us different challenges, Japan will give us a completely different challenge so we want to make sure that when we go to WAFCON we have all these different challenges and we will have solutions for those if anything arises during WAFCON and their top teams, 2011 world cup winners as well as current Asian champions, so they will really test us as much as they can take lessons from that and see how we can swap that,\u201d says Ellis.<\/p>\n
Banyana might be suffering from fatigue due to a long trip from SA of just over 20 hours. But Ellis says they have enough time to recover ahead of the first match against a team ranked fifth in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it will affect us that much. We have a few days to get ready for the game; we will take as much time off as we can in those days leading up to the game to make sure that everyone understands as much as they can and as much as we can give them about,\u201d Ellis added.<\/p>\n
All 23 players selected by Ellis for the trip are in Osaka. Although some regulars were omitted due to injuries, Ellis has faith in those who made the trip.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe have a couple of players missing, but that\u2019s the norm in football when players are not available due to injuries; it allows others to step up. Hopefully, they grab that opportunity; it makes our decisions to select players more difficult because that\u2019s what we want as coaches. We are looking forward to the challenge just like the players,\u201d Ellis explains.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Banyana\u2019s hosts became the first Asian team to win the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup when they lifted the trophy in 2011.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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