Cape young guns fire on all cylinders
| Coach De Sa and youngest skipper in the league have fans and rivals taking notice of their progress
ROGER de Sa would make a great principal — teaching, guiding, polishing and promoting novices comes naturally to him.
With an average squad age of 24, his Ajax Cape Town are the youngest team in the Premier Soccer League.
It is only strongman Franklin Cale, 32, and beanpole Nathan Paulse, 33, who tick the senior citizens and physicality boxes.
The MTN8 finalists churn out a conveyer belt of impressive youngsters at the Ikamva training centre and the Urban Warriors are undaunted in unleashing them to the football fast lane.
The central rearguard partners of Bafana Bafana star Rivaldo Coetzee and under-23 international Abbubaker Mobara are 18 and 21 respectively.
“They’ve clicked excellently. Add to that Mosa Lebusa, who is 22, to the backline and you realise that the kids are growing up fast. They’re gonna be bullied and pushed around but these boys are no pushovers,” de Sa says. “You put them in an organised shape and discipline. We are not a star-studded squad, we have no superstar, but we are a super team. We’ve taken these boys to two finals in a short space of time — that’s progress.”
Coetzee’s progress in particular pleases De Sa immensely. His exploits with Bafana have piqued the centre back’s curiosity and sparked his creativity, and his coach believes the superior opposition he comes up against when doing duty for the country has made a man out of the boy.
“He’s always had unbelievable ability on the ball. But his time with Bafana has improved his overall game intelligence and his aerial power has improved in leaps and bounds for one so short. I don’t see another centre back as good as him.”
The exuberance of youth is not without its perils.
“Sometimes they’re naive and play like they’re in a church league where it’s all about fun.
“But now we’re getting them to play with a purpose. You still want them to have fun but they must keep the result in mind because it’s a lot more fun when you win.”
Last season was about stabilising the side but they finished fifth and reached the Nedbank final because “this bunch is willing to go all the way”, says De Sa. “The best coach is the game itself and they’ve man- aged to cope with everybody in the league. They give everything.
“When your captain is only 21, already in the job for a season and showing maturity beyond his age, you know he’s destined for great things.”
Many have progressed to bigger and better things under De Sa’s tutelage. He gave professional debuts to Sibusiso Vilakazi and Tefo Mashamaite, who have both won PSL player of the season at Bidvest Wits.
Sifiso Myeni and Patrick Phungwayo were his students at the varsity club before graduating to Orlando Pirates, where De Sa coached them to four finals.
“I sit at the PSL awards and I watch Vilakazi go up for the PSL award of the year.
“The doctor had told him to go home and never play football again following a career-threatening injury. We took the risk and a year later he walks into my first team and has gone on to achieve what he has.
“Junaid [Mashamaite], I gave him a contract from the second division. He became captain and lifted the Nedbank Cup. He has gone on to do well at Kaizer Chiefs.
“That tap on the back or a little wink from those players gives you unbelievable gratification.”
There was no pleasurable emotional reaction when Ajax lost the Nedbank Cup final to Mamelodi Sundowns on penal- ties at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in May.
They return to the scene of the crime on September 19 to make amends against Chiefs.
The man who has taken to suping (surfing with oars) in his spare time hopes for a better roll of the dice this time, for both himself and his team.
Of the six cup finals he reached with various teams since 2010, he has won one, the Nedbank Cup against AmaZulu, in a match that marked the opening of the then newly refurbished FNB Stadium.
“Every final has a story. When you lose it convincingly like when Pirates beat us [referring to Wits] 3-1 in the MTN8, we were poor on the night and certainly didn’t deserve to win it.
“I remember when we [Pirates] lost the Champions League final to Al Ahly, that was a little bit hard to take.
“I thought to myself it is going to take a lot to get to this point again in my life. I’ve packed that one in a totally different shelf all together.”
In May he was a heartbeat from delivering a trophy to his directors as Ajax led Sundowns 3-1 in the penalty shootout.
“We had one hand on the cup but my two best penalty kickers missed and we lost. Heck, you’ll miss some and score some. The important thing is we were not outplayed by a multimillionrand Sundowns team of stars,” says de Sa.