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Cape Town - Mpumalanga Black Aces coach Clive Barker acknowledged that his team was thoroughly outplayed by a tactically and technically astute Ajax Cape Town on Sunday.
The Aces defensive unit was horribly exposed during the fixture, which the team lost 3-0 and AmaZayoni simply weren't able to gather any meaningful momentum during either of the two halves, despite Barker implementing several changes during the second stanza.
While statistics tend to vary on the various platforms available to the football public, the one aspect of the match everybody agrees upon is that Aces were not able to create any meaningful opportunities because they simply did not enjoy enough of the ball possession.
Barker, who was gracious in defeat, suggested that his players simply weren’t able to compete when it mattered most.
"They were sharper and quicker. We like to play the ball and slow it down to our tempo and we didn’t do that," admitted Barker.
After Ajax scored their first two goals on the afternoon, they applied sustained pressure on their opponents and never took the foot off the proverbial peddle for the remainder of the first stanza. That trend even continued early in the second half too and with that, any hopes of sparking some form of revival were quickly erased.
"I thought what they did well was when they were 2-0 up they kept the ball very nicely for a long period," added Barker.
"Then was the third goal which was a decider and a killer but I thought the way they passed the ball reminded me of the good old Ajax side, and I think Roger has turned them around."
The Aces defensive unit was horribly exposed during the fixture, which the team lost 3-0 and AmaZayoni simply weren't able to gather any meaningful momentum during either of the two halves, despite Barker implementing several changes during the second stanza.
While statistics tend to vary on the various platforms available to the football public, the one aspect of the match everybody agrees upon is that Aces were not able to create any meaningful opportunities because they simply did not enjoy enough of the ball possession.
Barker, who was gracious in defeat, suggested that his players simply weren’t able to compete when it mattered most.
"They were sharper and quicker. We like to play the ball and slow it down to our tempo and we didn’t do that," admitted Barker.
After Ajax scored their first two goals on the afternoon, they applied sustained pressure on their opponents and never took the foot off the proverbial peddle for the remainder of the first stanza. That trend even continued early in the second half too and with that, any hopes of sparking some form of revival were quickly erased.
"I thought what they did well was when they were 2-0 up they kept the ball very nicely for a long period," added Barker.
"Then was the third goal which was a decider and a killer but I thought the way they passed the ball reminded me of the good old Ajax side, and I think Roger has turned them around."
