There’s not much between February, Petersen – De Sa
AJAX CAPE TOWN’S struggles haven’t diminished Roger de Sa’s enthusiasm and resolve in any way. In fact, despite yet another defeat at the weekend – in the first round of the Telkom Knockout – the Cape side’s coach still managed to highlight one particular silver lining in the team’s performance: Goalkeeper Jody February.
De Sa’s team is back in action tomorrow night when they host Wits in a PSL fixture at the Cape Town Stadium (kickoff 7.30pm) – and, no doubt, the coach is expecting another polished display from his 20-year-old keeper.
Ajax’s regular number one for the last few seasons was Finn Anssi Jaakkola, who this season joined Reading in the English Championship (they play Arsenal in the League Cup tonight). Jaakkola’s departure opened the door for two promising Cape youngsters to duel for the number one jersey. Brandon Petersen, 22, played in Ajax’s opening five league games, while February, 20, was drafted into the starting team for the weekend’s Cup tie against SuperSport United.
De Sa, despite the 1-0 loss after extra time to SuperSport, was highly impressed with February’s performance. He gave some insight into his thinking around the two top-class Capetonians: “There’s not much between the two of them. Brandon played in the first five games, but I always knew that I would have to reward Jody for the work he’s been doing at training. Also, for Saturday’s game, one of the main reasons I brought Jody into the team was because that was the same field (in Atteridgeville) where Brandon broke his leg two years ago. I didn’t want him getting flashbacks of his leg pointing in the wrong direction…
“But Jody’s performance was very good. If I have to fault anything, it’s probably his distribution, but that will come with time and more games. At his age, to come in and do so well was great… and for us, as a club, to have two such young, good keepers is fantastic.”
The Ajax coach, however, was fully aware that his team’s situation at present was fraught with danger. They are yet to win a game this season and, in the PSL, it’s not very wise to fall behind early in the season. Because of the competitive, unpredictable nature of the league, it’s often very difficult to make up the ground.
“We just have to keep believing and keep fighting,” said De Sa, “We have to persevere… Yes, there is pressure, but, in this sport, there’s pressure all the time. So it’s no different, it’s simply like that all the time. We are looking to win… we analyse our performances after every match and I have to say there wasn’t a single game in which we were outplayed. We’ve had bad moments, not bad games.
“In Wits, we’re in for another tough opponent – there are no easy games in the PSL. And remember that just recently Wits beat the current African champions (Sundowns) in the MTN8 final. I think Wits are one of the favourites for the league title, they’ve got a quality squad.”
While Wits also come off a defeat in the Cup at the weekend – 3-1 to Free State Stars after extra time – De Sa wasn’t reading too much into that.
“I think you’ve got to credit Stars for the result,” he said. “They got their tactics right on a small, compact field in Bethlehem that suited their players. It’ll be different for us on Wednesday... we don’t have the type of personnel that Stars have, and we will be playing on a much bigger pitch. In any case, I don’t expect Wits to come with the same team, they’ll make changes, and we’ll have to be prepared for something different.”