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Cape Town - Recently-crowned Telkom Knockout champions SuperSport United need to rediscover their league form as they head into Sunday’s Absa
Premiership showdown with Ajax Cape Town at the Athlone Stadium.
ALSO READ: GI questions Phala's dismissal.
Following Saturday’s TKO extra time win over Platinum Stars, SuperSport came back down to earth with a bump when they were outplayed in a 3-1 Tshwane derby loss to Mamelodi Sundowns on Wednesday.
“I think we were a bit flat against Sundowns after 120 minutes on the weekend, but no excuses, it was not our best performance,” said Matsatsantsa midfielder Michael Morton.
“Ajax are playing very good soccer under Roger De Sa, he has really got the young side going. They’re looking good for at least a top eight finish, we want to push ourselves up the table, so both teams will really want the three points on Sunday.”
A poor start to the season has left the Pretoria team playing catch-up in the league, but Morton remains optimistic that they can soon elevate themselves to towards the top of the standings.
“We haven’t given up yet. It’s crazy how tight the table is – a couple of weeks ago when we played Pirates, we were busy beating them and at that moment we were up to second position on the table. But we ended up losing the game and ended in 10th spot (United have since dropped to 11th, 18 points off log leader Kazier Chiefs, although only seven points behind Ajax, who are in second spot).
“So if any team can string two or three wins together,” Moron continued, “they can find themselves up near the top. That must be our goal ahead of Christmas, to try and get a couple wins together and move up the standings before the players can have a breather, but for now our focus is only on the Ajax game.”
The Urban Warriors have taken five points from their last three matches since losing 3-0 to AmaTuks, including Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw with Moroka Swallows in Dobsonville.
Goalkeeper Anssi Jaakolla believes there are negatives and positives to be taken from Ajax’s recent performances:
“We have not been at our best, especially in terms of creating chances up front,” conceded the Finland-born shot stopper. “But we have also shown character to dig out some results when we have not been at our best.
“Against Swallows we defended almost for 90 minutes and conceded just once, and then against showed character to fight back for the draw. We have conceded only once in our last three games, so that’s a positive.
“SuperSport are going to give us a very tough match – I hope that they will still be celebrating their Cup win, but probably not! After losing to SuperSport, they’ll badly be wanting to win as well.”
SuperSport United coach Gordon Igesund will be without top striker Dove Wome for this game - the Togolese forward will serve a one match ban after picking up a fourth yellow card of the season against Sundowns, while he also limped off with a hamstring complaint. Also missing will be Thuso Phala, who was red-carded against the Brazilians.
Along with Igesund, former Ajax players Clayton Daniels, Lebogang Manyama and Thato Mokeke will also be looking to mark their return to their former club with a positive result on Saturday, while in Thabiso Nkoana, Ajax have a former Matsatsantsa striker and potential match winner in their camp.
ALSO READ: GI questions Phala's dismissal.
Following Saturday’s TKO extra time win over Platinum Stars, SuperSport came back down to earth with a bump when they were outplayed in a 3-1 Tshwane derby loss to Mamelodi Sundowns on Wednesday.
“I think we were a bit flat against Sundowns after 120 minutes on the weekend, but no excuses, it was not our best performance,” said Matsatsantsa midfielder Michael Morton.
“Ajax are playing very good soccer under Roger De Sa, he has really got the young side going. They’re looking good for at least a top eight finish, we want to push ourselves up the table, so both teams will really want the three points on Sunday.”
A poor start to the season has left the Pretoria team playing catch-up in the league, but Morton remains optimistic that they can soon elevate themselves to towards the top of the standings.
“We haven’t given up yet. It’s crazy how tight the table is – a couple of weeks ago when we played Pirates, we were busy beating them and at that moment we were up to second position on the table. But we ended up losing the game and ended in 10th spot (United have since dropped to 11th, 18 points off log leader Kazier Chiefs, although only seven points behind Ajax, who are in second spot).
“So if any team can string two or three wins together,” Moron continued, “they can find themselves up near the top. That must be our goal ahead of Christmas, to try and get a couple wins together and move up the standings before the players can have a breather, but for now our focus is only on the Ajax game.”
The Urban Warriors have taken five points from their last three matches since losing 3-0 to AmaTuks, including Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw with Moroka Swallows in Dobsonville.
Goalkeeper Anssi Jaakolla believes there are negatives and positives to be taken from Ajax’s recent performances:
“We have not been at our best, especially in terms of creating chances up front,” conceded the Finland-born shot stopper. “But we have also shown character to dig out some results when we have not been at our best.
“Against Swallows we defended almost for 90 minutes and conceded just once, and then against showed character to fight back for the draw. We have conceded only once in our last three games, so that’s a positive.
“SuperSport are going to give us a very tough match – I hope that they will still be celebrating their Cup win, but probably not! After losing to SuperSport, they’ll badly be wanting to win as well.”
SuperSport United coach Gordon Igesund will be without top striker Dove Wome for this game - the Togolese forward will serve a one match ban after picking up a fourth yellow card of the season against Sundowns, while he also limped off with a hamstring complaint. Also missing will be Thuso Phala, who was red-carded against the Brazilians.
Along with Igesund, former Ajax players Clayton Daniels, Lebogang Manyama and Thato Mokeke will also be looking to mark their return to their former club with a positive result on Saturday, while in Thabiso Nkoana, Ajax have a former Matsatsantsa striker and potential match winner in their camp.
Kick-off is at 3:30pm.
