Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis will be urging her charges to lose the slow starter's tag, when they take on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, in their Group A match at the Cyprus Women's Cup in Larnaca, Cyprus on Friday.
Following the 2-all draw in their opening group encounter against Finland, Ellis said that Banyana looked a bit rushed in the first 15 to 20 minutes when they were in possession of the ball.
"In the second half things went much better," said the coach, with the second period, played amid rain, hail, thunder and lightning.
"We conceded a poor goal from a throw-in, but then we recovered and got the goal back. Again poor marking conceded the second goal by not tracking the player."
Leandra Smeda and Thembi Kgatlana found the back of the Finland net for the South Africans, with the team having had to come back from a goal down on each occasion.
"It shows the character of the team but we cannot consistently make the same mistakes because teams at a higher level will punish you," said Ellis.
"We just need to react quicker. Teams analyse us just as we analyse teams. Sometimes they had us at sixes and sevens but the shots they took were never threatening. I am happy with the result but we need to up our performance."
"You know, sometimes we don't play to our strength which is playing the ball on the ground and passing the ball around," continued Ellis.
"We had a plan on switching the play and at the time we didn't do it quick enough. We always knew that the pace that Jermaine Seoposenwe, Thembi Kgatlana and Rhoda Mulaudzi have could unsettle them. I thought the changes affected the game really well."
"We will probably make a couple of changes and play more players to give everyone an opportunity to play," commented Ellis, a former Banyana captain.
"Conditions were completely different to what we are used too," added Ellis.
The rain was pelting down. The ball reacts differently, passing is different and needs to be firmer. We didn't get the result we wanted but we showed character, although we have got to do much better."
Ellis praised the Banyana captain Janine van Wyk for handing the captain's armband to the vice-captain Refiloe Jane, who celebrated her 100th national cap in the fixture against Finland.
"A big congratulations to Refiloe (Jane) on her 100th cap," said Ellis.
"I thought it was very well deserved but it also shows the leadership skills of (Janine) Van Wyk who handed the captain's armband to her for the game. That is the quality that Van Wyk has."
African News Agency