JOHANNESBURG – Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter was impressed with the performance of Banyana Banyana despite their 3-0 defeat to Sweden in an international friendly played at the Cape Town Stadium on Sunday.
Baxter visited Banyana in the dressing room after the match.
“I can see you are not happy with the result, and I share your sentiments,” said Baxter.
“It is not a great result, but on the side of performance you gave your all. You were at times better than them but only in patches. But remember there are other factors that come into play – they have been doing this from an early age, so their development is far ahead of yours.
They play in a professional league, you last played a match in October – but be that as it may, you still gave a good performance,” said Baxter.
“You must pat yourselves on the back for that kind of performance, and to change the result you will have to give a little bit more of yourselves, maybe 10 percent more. I must say I am impressed with the work done by Desiree [Ellis] and her technical team, and it showed on the field.
A little more push and you will be able to better compete with the likes of Sweden. It is also quite pleasing to hear that you are going to the Cyprus Cup where you will meet such opposition, because the more you play them, the better you will get. Sorry about the results, but it was a great performance.”
Banyana will next play at the Cyprus Women’s Cup, which runs from February 26 to March 7.