Ajax happy to put feet up for a while
IN sport, there’s an adage that rest is just as important as training. The sentiment epitomises the mood in the Ajax Cape Town camp as they head into a much-needed break. It will be feet-up, forget aboutfootball for a while, and recharge the batteries before the final run-in to the PSL season.
After a hectic playing schedule, culminating in Wednesday night’s 1-0 away win over the University of Pretoria, Ajax coach Roger de Sa is looking forward to allowing his tiring squad some rest and recovery.
In recent weeks, things haven’t gone too well. The Urban Warriors crashed out of the CAF Confederation Cup and the Nedbank Cup, while their form in the PSL was patchy as well. The playing programme, though, included lots of travel – Pretoria, Polokwane, Angola, Bethlehem and Rustenburg – and there have been signs that the punishing playing (especially in the heat) and travel schedule had taken its toll.
On Wednesday, De Sa rung the changes in a desperate bid to freshen up the squad, and
Has had a few difficult weeks the decision worked well as Ajax snapped a five-game winless run at Tuks Stadium.
With the upcoming international break, and the last 16 of the Nedbank Cup getting underway the week thereafter, Ajax’s next league fixture is only on April 13, against Platinum Stars at Cape Town Stadium.
“We’ve got a three or fourweek break now and it’s an opportunity to re-focus,” said De Sa. “There’s no football for us and we’ll use the opportunity to do other things, get the guys Tomorrow: Golden Arrows v SuperSport United; Free State Stars v Polokwane City Sunday: Platinum Stars v MP Black Aces; Chippa United v Maritzburg Utd fresh again, and then ready for the rest of the season.”
De Sa was certainly glad for the win over Tuks as Ajax needed a positive result and performance to boost the flagging confidence in the squad.
“It has been a tough week for us, in fact it has been a difficult couple of weeks,” he said. “The game against Tuks was all about grinding out a result, it was difficult, but that is what we did. Look, Tuks are fighting at the bottom and they were always going to come at us in the second half … at least we managed to hang on.”
“We haven’t kept a clean sheet in quite a while, so that was also good. We’ve had a heavy schedule over the last few weeks, with games on the weekend and in midweek … I changed things a bit to bring in some fresh legs.
“We’ve now reached the 30point target and that means we can focus on pushing for the top eight.”
As for the rest of the PSL, Bloemfontein Celtic did the title-challengers a huge favour by defeating PSL log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns 3-1 in Atteridgeville on Wednesday. With Wits beating Orlando Pirates 1-0, the gap at the top has been closed to just four points.
Sundowns lead the way with 52 points, followed by Wits on 48, Platinum Stars 40 and Kaizer Chiefs 39. Ajax are back in ninth on 30 points. At the bottom it’s just as tight, with basement club Maritzburg United on 15, AmaTuks on 17 and Jomo Cosmos – surprise conquerors of Chiefs on Tuesday – on 20 points.
While Sundowns remain favourites despite Wednesday’s shock loss, Wits are the team to watch. If anybody knows how to plot a PSL title charge, it’s Wits coach Gavin Hunt.