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Cape Town - Roger de Sa has heaped praise for Travis Graham and applauds Ajax's young defence after their shock win over Mamelodi Sundowns.
As it happened: Ajax CT v Sundowns
According to Soccer Laduma, de Sa was a happy coach as his side did the unexpected and win with a young squad which he has praised.
“I think we’re playing with nine development players, from the youth academy, and they’re all good well-groomed players, so you got to use that,” de Sa said after the game.
“They’re never going to play a physical game, they’re going to play football, and they were outstanding.”
De Sa believes that his side could cope with the pressure put on by Sundowns and reckon they could have won by a bigger margin.
“Sundowns give you a chance, they try play football as well, so it suits us, and today you could see it, we could match them, pass-for-pass, and obviously at the end they threw everything forward, but I still think we had some chances, especially in the first half that we could have wrapped the game up.
“But I’m happy for the guys, especially Travis (Graham); I made him captain last night, and wow, what a debut as a captain.
The former Bidvest Wits coach remains calm about his team’s prospects and knows that he has to be patient with new-look back four.
“Sometimes I have a go at them (his defence) and I forget Rivaldo is only 17, and Mobara is 19, and yet I expect so much more from them, but you’re dealing with a backline where only one player is over 25, so you’ve got to be a little more patient, and today was a great performance from them, I think they came up against possibly the best in the league and they coped,”de Sa said.
“It’s just a question of consistency, and coping week in and week out, and we’ll see how it goes.”
