Good times at Ikamva, but there’s one or two issues ...
THREE wins from four league games and Ajax Cape Town are starting to build up some winning momentum, even if the team have been some way off their best in 2015.
Winning games without playing particularly well is seldom a bad thing. And generally, winning matches breeds confidence, which in turn should lead to better football. But there also needs to be an upward trajectory in terms of performance levels if long-term and sustainable success is to be achieved.
In this respect, Ajax Cape Town have plenty of time. Their main objective this season, after a poor couple of years for the club, was to stay out of the relegation battle, a top eight finish a bonus.
Right now, following a slightly fortuitous 2-1 win over Black Aces at the Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday night, Ajax occupy fifth position on the table, and are five points clear of a faltering Polokwane City in eighth place. So it’s looking good for all concerned at the club.
But if the Urban Warriors are to continue to move forward, to challenge for trophies as they have done for much of their existence, head coach Roger De Sa still has quite a bit of work to do if he wants his side to be in the mix for silverware next season, or if they are to go all the way in this season’s Nedbank Cup (a tough last 16 encounter with Bloemfontein Celtic awaits at the Athlone Stadium next week Friday).
It should be taken into account however, that the class of 2015 are very youthful, and on occasion have been found wanting in certain areas.
De Sa for example admits that young central defenders Abbubaker Mobara and Rivaldo Coetzee still need a bit of toughening up.
“We battle a bit. Every time we play a team that’s physical, we battle a bit,” explained De Sa after the pair had endured a difficult night against the burly Collins Mbesuma.
“It’s an 18-year-old and a 20year-old, so we battle at times with physicality. We allowed them to get the ball and turn, and that was one of the problems we had.”
But the Ajax technical team’s main point of concern is up front, where things are just not quite gelling for the Cape side. And even when they do get their combinations right going forward, poor finishing has been the order of the day.
“We weren’t fluid at all, we looked jaded and a little bit tired [after a five day, two game trip up to Gauteng and Limpopo last week. Our passing wasn’t as good as it should have been, and again our finishing wasn’t great,” De Sa said after seeing his team edging out Clive Barker’s Aces side though a Nathan Paulse penalty and an Aces own goal..
“In the final third we rushed a bit. We chose to shoot when I thought there was an extra pass available, and we never really made the goalkeeper make a telling save.
That was disappointing, as much possession as we had, it looked like it was going to be one of those evenings when we could it finish it off.”
While the return from injury of veteran striker Nathan Paulse has undoubtedly given Ajax something more in attack, the hardworking marksman a handful for any defence, De Sa is also concerned that the rest of the team are becoming too reliant on his ball-holding ability.
“We made the wrong choice in the final pass.
“We played two, three passes, and then tried to play the ball to Nathan. And that’s a bit of a sickness we have –when Nathan is on the park, everybody thinks that you have got to play to him. It’s disappointing, because we are trying to get them to play on the ground, but we are playing little lolly passes up to Nathan, and he had no chance of holding it up.”
Issues De Sa may have, but if the club can keep the nucleus of the current side together, the young players growing in stature and tactical awareness all the time, this squad of players certainly look good enough to get Ajax back to the top.