Cape Town - Roger de Sa faces a rather intricate and elaborate juggling act as the Premier Soccer League season draws to a close.
Not only does he have three tricky fixtures to negotiate before the league seasons ends, he also has to ensure that his men are fresh and ready for the Nedbank Cup final against Mamelodi Sundowns in Port Elizabeth on May 16.
De Sa is also not able to simply disregard the league games, because he is set on finishing in a top-eight position. As things stand on the PSL table, according to De Sa, Ajax are still three points short of their objective.
The Ajax coach has, all season, maintained that 40 points should be enough to secure a top-eight spot. They are currently on 37 points, three away from De Sa’s target.
Champions Kaizer Chiefs are on 66 points, a whopping 18 clear of second- and third-placed Orlando Pirates and Sundowns respectively, a clear indication of how dominant they have been this season. In fourth are Wits on 45 points, followed by Bloemfontein Celtic (40), Ajax (37), Maritzburg United (36), SuperSport United (35) and Polokwane City on 34 points.
With Ajax taking on Bloem Celtic in the Free State tomorrow afternoon (kick-off 3.30pm), and then following that up with home games against Moroka Swallows and Pirates, De Sa will have to box clever to ensure that his key men are energised for their cup showdown with Sundowns.
Already in midweek, in a 1-0 away defeat to Maritzburg, the Ajax tactician rested the likes of Rivaldo Coetzee, Erwin Isaacs and Nathan Paulse, and, chances are, he will again juggle his starting team tomorrow. It’s a difficult and tricky task but De Sa, having coached a bloated squad at Pirates before, will have a good idea of how to go about things.
In Celtic, though, Ajax are up against a team in the form of their life. Their last two games saw them hammering Sundowns 5-0, and then travelling to Port Elizabeth to edge Chippa United 2-1. To make things even more difficult, the home side are notoriously difficult to beat at home.
The Free Staters battled earlier on in the season, when Ernst Middendorp was the coach, but since former Pirates and Manning Rangers midfielder Clinton Larsen returned to steer the ship, things have changed for the better.
“The players were a bit tense when they got into goal-scoring positions when I came back as coach.” said Larsen. “It was the first thing I noticed… my main focus was then to get them to relax, to not worry about the bench or the supporters. And it seems to have worked.”
Ajax defeated Celtic at home recently in a cup tie, but this, of course, is a completely different game. And, with the Capetonians being rather abysmal away from home this season, there’s no doubt they are in for a tough encounter.
“It will be difficult,” acknowledged Ajax assistant coach Ian Taylor. “But we’ve got to go there and try to get the points. We were very good in our away match in midweek, even though we lost to Maritzburg, because we squandered so many opportunities. We can use the positives from that match and take it into the Celtic game.”
PSL fixtures
Saturday: Free State Stars v Chippa United; Wits v Black Aces; AmaZulu v SuperSport United.
Sunday: Platinum Stars v Mamelodi Sundowns; Bloem Celtic v Ajax Cape Town (Kaizer Sebothelo Stadium, 3.30pm)
Weekend Argus