Bafana Bafana's COSAFA head coach Morena Ramoreboli has shared his insight on where Banyana Banyana went wrong in their 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup group opener against Sweden on Sunday.
After a goalless first stanza, Banyana took the lead early in the second stanza through Hildah Magaia but Sweden found the equaliser with 25 minutes to go and broke the hearts of South Africans with the winner in the last minute to clinch the game 2-1 and earn three points in Group G.
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Ramoreboli, who led Bafana to a third-place finish at the 2023 COSAFA Cup, says although he was impressed with Banyana's organization, they allowed Sweden to play to their strengths.
"Let's be honest, the match was decided on set-plays, I think we did well to some extent, dealing with those aerial balls which they were playing into the box and I was very impressed with the defensive structure of Banyana," Ramoreboli said on SABC News.
"In terms of dealing with the ball, very good covering and blocking the runners. But I think we allowed them to push us to play more into their strength," he said.
The Jwaneng Galaxy head coach went on and explained what Sweden did tactically, that Desiree Ellis' charges struggled to deal with.
"Because we knew they wanted to go over to the striker, the number 11 for the second ball. We knew that they wanted to go wide and they were doing something very tricky, they were pushing the left full back very high and pushed the right full back inside, as if she's a centre right," he said.
"They were doing something like 3-5-2 and it was a bit difficult for us to deal with it with the 4-2-3-1 because it was forcing our wingers to drop too deep and expose spaces behind, so that when we win the ball, even if we can play to Kgatlana we're too far and we could not connect quickly with her.
"And secondly, was to concede a lot of corner-kicks, which unfortunately we couldn't control. But honestly speaking we did well. It's just unfortunate we conceded that goal in the critical phase of the match," he added.
Banyana's next match is against Argentina on Friday morning at 2am, South African time.
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