The race for the Premier Soccer League (PSL) title is again set to go down to the wire, but the next few weeks will be crucial in separating the winners from the losers at both ends of the table.
The top of the log is now a two-horse race, with only Kaizer Chiefs and Ajax Cape Town still in with a chance of being crowned champions on June 9.
Ironically, although neither Chiefs nor Ajax has won the league since the PSL started in the 1996/97 season, both teams’ coaches have tasted success. Gordon Igesund of Ajax took Manning Rangers, Orlando Pirates and Santos to the promised land, while Ted Dumitru twice coached Sundowns to the title.
At stake besides the prestige of being league champions is the little matter of a R2,4-million winners’ cheque, and participation in the African Champions League.
At present Chiefs lead the log with 55 points with Ajax on 50. Both teams have five games left to play. Although Chiefs seem to have quite a comfortable cushion over their rivals, their supporters have been down this road before only to see their hopes dashed come the final whistle of the season.Â
The black and gold team needs a run of victories to re-establish confidence, particularly after the morale-sapping loss last weekend to arch-rivals Pirates.
In that game the Chiefs players appeared fatigued, while the ongoing contract-signing saga might just be the distraction that takes their eyes off the big prize.
Ajax, on the other hand, have an equally big distraction in terms of their run in the Absa Cup. They play Manning Rangers at Chatsworth stadium on Sunday in the semifinal of that competition and the R1,5-million that goes to the cup winners might be deemed adequate reward for a team that flirted with relegation last season.
What troubles many Chiefs supporters, however, is the club’s history of snatching defeat from the jaws of league victory. The management and players might not yet have pressed the panic button, but they should be cautiously advised that it is now or never for the glamour team.
Chiefs have been runners-up four times in the seven-year history of the PSL and have not, in fact, won the top division title since 1992.
Although Sundowns pipped Chiefs to the 1998/99 title merely on goal difference, it was the 2000/01 season that caused supporters the most heartache.
The club had swept all before them, winning all the cup competitions they entered, and they required 12 points from their last five league games. But the wheels fell off and they managed justs nine points — allowing bitter rivals Pirates to overhaul them and take the title by a single point. Supporters find the parallels with that season a little nerve-wracking, with the Naturena side now needing 11 points from their last five games to see off Ajax.
Their last five games are against Supersport United (Chiefs’ bogey team and the only side besides Pirates to beat them this season); Zulu Royals, who are in a relegation scrap, Santos, Moroka Swallows and Wits University.
Ajax, whose squad is suffering under the twin clouds of injury and too many yellow cards, have an even trickier run-in. They play fallen giants Sundowns, still desperately hoping for a top-eight finish, Swallows, outgoing champions Pirates, the doomed ‘Greek Godsâ€, Hellenic, and Black Leopards.
The added burden of their continuing Absa Cup run could test Igesund’s ingenuity and his squad’s depth to the maximum.
At best Ajax Cape Town can finish with 65 points and Kaizer Chiefs 70 points. It will take a total collapse of the black and gold team and miraculous resilience from Ajax’s thin squad to pull out a seven-game winning streak — assuming they beat Rangers and go on to win the Absa Cup on June 12.
But the black and gold team should not suppose anything is too much for Ajax. Igesund’s record of clinching league titles with unfancied players and teams is well known.
At the unhappier end of the table, the battle to see who will go down with Hellenic is also going down to the final whistle.
Manning Rangers must take care that their Absa Cup exploits do not distract them from the bigger task of remaining in the PSL.
They lie a point behind Dynamos and one ahead of Zulu Royals, with Dynamos having played a game more than the other two. Rangers and Royals have four more games to play while Dynamos have three.
If all three somehow manage to win all their remaining games, it will be the Limpopo team that joins Hellenic in the first division, especially as one of their remaining fixtures is a potential ‘six-pointer†against Rangers.