With 30 points in the bag, Ajax take a breather before top-eight push
FRIDAY MARCH 18 2016 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 about football for a while, and re-charge 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 a well-deserved period of rest and recovery.
In recent weeks, things haven’t gone too well. The Cape club 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 definite signs that the punishing playing (especially in the heat) and travel schedule had taken their toll on the squad.
On Wednesday, De Sa rang the changes in a desperate bid to freshen up the squad. A few fatigued legs and minds were given a break – and the decision worked well as Ajax finally snapped a five-game winless run with a hard-fought victory over relegationthreatened AmaTuks.
With the upcoming international break ahead, and the last 16 of the Nedbank Cup getting under way the week thereafter, Ajax’s next league fixture is only on April 13 when they host Platinum Stars at the Cape Town Stadium.
“We’ve got a three or four-week 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 fresh again, and then ready ourselves for the rest of the season.”
De Sa was certainly glad for the win over AmaTuks – because, before that, things had been in the process of falling apart. 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,” said De Sa. “The game against Tuks was all about grinding out a result; it was difficult, but that Weekend PSL fixtures Tomorrow: Golden Arrows v SuperSport United; Free State Stars v Polokwane City Sunday: Platinum Stars v MP Black Aces; Chippa United v Maritzburg Utd is what we did… I thought we could have got another goal, to make things a little easier, but we couldn’t. 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. I think when we played Tuks in Pretoria last season we lost 30 and we were very disappointed. So to come here now and beat them was great.
“We’ve had a heavy schedule... with games on the weekend and in midweek… I changed things a bit to bring in some fresh legs. It was all about the team pulling together and we got the result we wanted, and now we can focus on the rest of the season.
“We’ve now reached the 30-point 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 on 40 and Kaizer Chiefs on 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 unexpected defeat, Wits are the team to watch. If anybody knows how to plot a PSL title charge, it’s Wits coach Gavin Hunt. Having already won it on three successive occasions with SuperSport United, Capetonian Hunt was headhunted by Wits to spearhead their challenge for the championship. The Students are wellplaced and, with seven games to go, the race is, well and truly on.