The FIFA Women World Cup’s first round of fixtures is now over. Of course, there is little time for rest and preparation in such a tough tournament. Though, teams who did not have a great time in their first match needs to hold-up and look for a fresh start. This is what both South Africa and China needs today. The Banyana Banyana had lost their first match against Spain after leading the game for more than an hour.
Their Asian rivals of the day had lost against Germany despite having some good opportunities. Thus, it seems quite interesting to figure out both teams’ strengths and weaknesses to get an idea about the possible scenarios of this Group B match. I will try in this tactical analysis to show some of the two team’s characteristics and to put the stress on what can make the difference in favour of either South Africa or China.
Line-ups and general dispositions
South Africa’s manager Desiree Ellis, generally, put on place a 5-midfielders structure with one single attacker. On paper, this did not change a lot in their first FIFA Womens World Cup match. The unique difference is that Ellis made the choice to put both Thembi Kgatlana and Amanda Mthandi in her starting line-up. Both of them generally played as the team’s main strikers in the preparation matches. Against Spain, they occupied respectively left and right flank.
Independently from the nature of the opponent and his strategy, South Africa does rarely change their global structure. We can assume that the manager will maintain the 5-midfielders structure against China. However, the team will tend to have more ball possession and try to manage more ball-circulation sequences. They will maybe need more play-making midfielders who are able to drop out of position and combine with team-mates. They will have also to bring a new left-back as Nothando Vilakazi got a red card in the opening match.
In the opposite side of the pitch, the Chinese team play often on a 4-4-2 structure with their two main attackers Shanshan Wang and Yang Li. They also, like their rivals, rarely change their formation. The team has a compact structure with clear and defined roles for each player. The 4-women midfield permits to close paths defensively and can be reinforced with one of the attackers. Having two attackers does allow some offensive mobility and guarantees a support player who comes to create numerical superiority while still having a presence at the penalty box.
South Africa Build-up and China’s pressing
The Banyana Banyana is maybe not the best team in terms of technical abilities and tactical disposition. However, the team does try at multiple times to build from the back and initiate short combinations especially against ‘medium-size teams’. At the first steps of the build-up phase, under pressure or not, South Africa tends to get the ball forward through short passes.
Every player including the goalkeeper, full-backs, defensive and central midfielders participate in the phase. Kaylin Swart tended to look for short pass opportunities especially towards the flanks. Both of central defenders did also look to combine with defensive and central midfielders. However, the latter even when trying to propose pass solutions to their team-mates did not put occupy the right positions and were often cover-shadowed or man-marked.
Thus, this first part of the build-up can cause much damage to the team especially if the Chinese decided to move forward and press a bit higher than they do. The Steel Roses does press in general around the midfield line as they did in their first match against Germany. This is not a high-intensity pressure on opponents. Instead, the Chinese tried to close any passing channel to the centre for the ball holder and then oblige the opponent and play horizontal and dangerous passes. The pictures below show how they managed to block the opponent’s vertical advancement and recover balls at the heart of the field.
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