Ajax Cape Town ensured it was a good day for Cape sides over the two Pretoria clubs when they beat Mamelodi Sundowns 1-0 at the Athlone Stadium on Saturday night.
Earlier in the day, Santos beat Tshwane’s other team, SuperSport United, also by a 1-0 scoreline.
Sundowns enjoyed good ball possession for the first 10 minutes, and had a couple of moments throughout the half — the odd flick here and there — but it was Ajax who looked more street-smart, more determined in the tackle, more eager to win back the ball, and they usually came out trumps in the 50-50 challenges.
The first real chance of the game arrived in the 11th minute when Franklyn Cale’s shot from just outside the area dipped towards the corner of the goal, forcing Calvin Marlin into making a diving save. The Sundowns shot-stopper only managed to palm the ball straight into the path of Sameehg Doutie. Marlin, however, redeemed himself as he made a brave block from Doutie’s close-range effort.
Sensing that they were gaining control of the game, the Cape side attacked with more intent, and Josesh Masel illustrated the confidence in the team when he came close with a long-range scorcher from a tight angle.
While some of the build-up play from Ajax — especially Doutie down the right flank — was very pleasing to the eye, the goal, scored after 21 minutes, was a more scrappy affair: defender Eduardo Ferreira got enough of his body on to the ball to get it over the line after Marlin had made a hash of Cale’s free kick.
The goal had little effect on Sundowns, who instead of rallying to try to create an equaliser, often found themselves coming off second best against an Ajax side who were willing to scrap for everything and often demonstrated innovative ways of maintaining possession.
Indeed, it was Ajax who looked more likely to score as Nazier Allie and Masel both had good chances before 45 minutes were up on the clock.
The Brazilians started the second half looking a bit more purposeful, helped in no small part by the introduction of substitute Thando Mngomeni for an ineffectual Lerato Chabangu.
However, for all their good intentions, all Downs had to show for their efforts were a couple of off-target shots from Dillon Sheppard and Surprise Moriri, both of whom were later substituted.
The last 15 minutes of the game were thrilling and had the big crowd on their feet as the visitors pushed hard for an equaliser, while Ajax also had opportunities on the counter-attack.
In the end, though, there was no addition to the scoreboard and Ajax were able to hold on to their lead and thereby restore their position at the top of the Absa Premiership table.
In other Absa Premiership games played on Saturday, Bay United beat Golden Arrows 2-1 and Platinum Stars and Chiefs drew 2-2. — Sapa