South Africa women’s team defeated Lesotho 1-0 in their first international friendly match at the University of Johannesburg Soweto Campus on Saturday afternoon. 

Nabahle Mdelwa scored from the spot kick in the 50th minute to give the home side a victorious win. 

Banyana Banyana are using the two friendly matches as part of preparations of the upcoming WAFCON tournament slated for July 2024 in their pursuit to defend the title. 

The African Champions last year played a good number of international friendlies, but did not win any of them. 

Reacting to the result, Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis said more work needs to be done in the second match. 

“We Looked Good”- Desiree.

“There were some good moments and there were some not so good moments. But I think the not so good moments came from a lack of movement off the ball because when we had the movement, we could move the ball around and when we did that, we looked good,”

“I thought that if we moved a little bit more, especially the two wingers, who were very stagnant up front, they didn’t give us a lot especially in the first half. The minute they dropped deeper, we were able to play, right.

“When we lost the ball, they didn’t help us there either. But I thought we had control. At times, it’s not our game to play long, but you know when they can’t find anyone, that’s what they do,”

“But happy with what we did this week. There were some things that we worked on that worked and there were some things that didn’t work. But as I said, it’s a short period of time with a young group and we wanted them to play. We said, let’s go out and play,”said Desiree. 

Meanwhile, Banyana Banyana will face Lesotho at the Same venue on Tuesday in the final clash of the friendly games.