Menzo not worried about Chiefs venue
STANLEY MENZO is fully aware of the massive task that awaits his Ajax Cape Town team when they take on Kaizer Chiefs at the Athlone Stadium on Saturday night (8.15pm kickoff).
While there remains all sorts of controversy with regards to the venue, and whether the game will take place or not, those are things out of Menzo’s control. His job is to ensure that his players are ready and prepared – and that’s all he’s focused on.
A final decision on whether the game goes ahead will be taken at a third priority meeting today, involving Ajax, the police, the traffic department and the city’s disaster management. In the two previous meetings, it was decided that Athlone for a Ajax-Chiefs match posed too many security risks.
Menzo, though, is not concerned with off-field issues. As far as he is concerned, when Chiefs turn up on Saturday, Ajax need to be at their best.
“Chiefs are a quality team that likes to play football,” said the former Ajax Amsterdam and Netherlands goalkeeper. “They have very good individuals and they are an experienced, mature team. With Chiefs now top of the log and having lots of confidence, it’s going to be a fight.
“We have to make sure that we don’t give them too much space, that we keep things tight and compact, and when we have chances, we have to be efficient at finishing them.
“But it’s also better to be play against teams like Chiefs. They allow you to play and they give you space. Other teams tend to sit back and wait to counter… So this will be more of a football game. It’s always good for a team to test itself against the best. We have to try to disturb their game, while trying to play our own game.”
Ajax come off a 1-1 draw with Polokwane City at the weekend, a performance the coach was quite happy with. In fact, if anything, he was disappointed with the result – he believes they had the better of the opportunities and could have won it. The match, though, saw captain Travis Graham pick up a fourth booking, so he’ll sit out the Chiefs game with an automatic onematch suspension. Ajax will also be without Grant Margeman, a youngster Menzo rates highly. The 18-year-old scored a great goal in the 1-1 draw with Polokwane – but he will be missing for the next few weeks while on national duty with the South Africa Under-20 squad at the junior Africa Cup of Nations in Zambia.
The weekend’s Polokwane match also allowed Menzo the chance to give new signing Rheece Evans his first start at right-back. Signed on loan from Mamelodi Sundowns, the robust defender impressed the Ajax coach. “Rheece did very well,” said Menzo. “I’ve waited a bit before bringing him in because I wanted him to adapt to our defensive patterns. Erwin Isaacs has been playing at right-back recently and we all know he is not really a No 2. But Rheece defended well and his contribution to the team was good.”
Menzo, having been in charge for a few months, is now fully acclimatised to the PSL – and he revealed some of his personal emotions at having been given an opportunity.
“I’m really enjoying it, being the coach of Ajax,” he said. “It’s always good to be involved at the highest level of club football, irrespective of which country it’s in. It has been a great experience so far, different cultures, different people and different dynamics. And then there’s the travel too, there are many places here in South Africa I would probably never have had an opportunity to see if I wasn’t involved as a coach at Ajax. And then, of course, to see the Ajax team improve all the time, it gives me great enjoyment.”