Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis.
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Coach Desiree Ellis believes her team is still a work in progress, despite the 1-0 victory over Algeria at the Princess Magogo Stadium in KwaMashu in the first of two international friendlies on Tuesday.
Bafana will face the Desert Foxes again in the second clash of the two-match series at the King Zwelithini Stadium in Umlazi on Friday.
Mamelodi Sundowns striker Nthabiseng Majiya found the back of the net in the 35th minute with a delightful goal from the edge of the penalty box, giving the Algerian goalkeeper no chance.
"Look, it wasn't an easy game. We haven't played together as a team since last year. We had some players who played at COSAFA but not all of them, so it was very important to get some minutes under the belt," said Ellis
"It was also important because many of these players, except for Linda and Hilda, haven't played any league football, and we needed to give them as many minutes as we could to get that synergy back, that energy back."
The two friendlies against Algeria, along with a further clash against Japan, is crucial to Banyana’s preparations for the Women’s African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) that’s been rescheduled from March to July.
The experienced Banyana coach is working extensively on getting her side to be more clinical in front of goal.
"We worked a lot on our final third entries. We had a lot - maybe the ball into the final third, maybe the run, maybe the finish - not taking the chances because we had a lot of chances that could've finished the game," she said.
"I think in the midfield we wanted to play a bit quicker because the minute we played quicker and we played our combination play, I thought we got out really good. But the heat, I think, was also a factor for many, because the game slowed down. We wanted to keep the tempo up at times, but unfortunately it didn't happen.
"Obviously, we will look at what we're going to do for the second game because we want to utilise this game not just to play players, but we also want to utilise this game to work on certain things. As I said, we worked on final third entries mostly, and we saw a lot of that.
"Now it's about getting into the box and finishing those chances because we're a team that's going to create, and I think if you look over the past matches that we've played, if we had put a lot of the chances away, we probably would win more games.
"So we concentrated on that a lot just for this, and it's a process because it's not going to happen overnight. But if you could see the progress in the final third, that is what we want," she added.
Ellis was also full of praise for stand-in captain Bambanani Mbane, who became just the 12th Banyana Banyana player to earn 100 caps in the first clash against Algeria.