TEN game, one win, six defeats and three draws.

These are numbers of a team which lost the league title on the last day last season. This was a whole new season and it needed a team that would have the mental ability not to ravel on the past but what was happening, especially when they lost players who played pivotal roles in their team’s success.

Out of a possible 30 points Ajax Cape Town could only manage six. Surely this must be a cause for concern for any coach.

Don’t worry Maarten, I too have been in denial - “there is no crisis here” I’ve been telling myself.

After checking out the stats I’ll first admit, we are in trouble. The club is in danger of missing out in a competition they did so well in.

With only two games to play, a home game at the Cape Town Stadium against Golden Arrows on Saturday and an away trip to Black Leopards on the final weekend of the league’s calendar, the Urban Warriors have to both games if they are to play in the MTN 8 next season. 

Ajax still has a mathematical chance to make the top eight. They are two points behind Amazulu who occupy the eighth spot on the log. 

How it went down:

After of five unbeaten games between December and January the Urban Warriors to a good position in the Premier Soccer League log - at one point they were title contenders.
Mid-February the Urban Warriors were fourth on the log only a few points behind then leaders Mamelodi Sundowns who had 34.
Four months later - they have been hit by a after a slump - the team finds itself at the bottom half of the table with 37 points.

Wednesday night’s loss to rejuvenated Kaizer Chiefs was a major blow to the Urban Warriors dreams of a top eight finish. Goals from returning midfield-maestro Reneilwe Letsholonyane and striker Bernard Parker down the Mother City side.
In their last 11 games, they has lost seven and won only one, the last a 2 - 1 win against relegation-threatened Jomo Cosmos early April. This season Ajax has been a guilty of surrendering earlier leads and eventually drawing or losing games.

• April 4, Ajax gave up a 2 nil lead to draw against Moroka Swallows
• April 21 after 1 goal up through a Khama Billiat strike, Supersport went on to win the game 2 - 1 after two late strikes.
• After going 2 goals up in a Nedbank Cup game against Amazulu, the KZN side came from behind drawing the game 3 all. Ajax eventually lost 5 - 3 on penalties.

 
Before the loss to Amazulu, the cape army had gone on a 6 game undefeated  streak, which included a spirited last 10 minute comeback against Platinum Stars On February 15.

Do they deserve to be in the top eight?

They have played some good football but that doesn’t automatically translate to good results, at least that’s not what the table is showing. 

The poor performance in front of goals which has seen them scoring only 37 goals to the 45 they have conceded.
Secondly they were “runners up” last season, so they desrve to at least still be considered one of the ”big guns”

But as much as I love my team, the football fan in me wishes they don’t qualify for Wafa Wafa. Maybe this will teach them to take each opponent seriously. Perhaps it will bring rejuvenated Urban Warriors to the battle ground. Roger Palmgren’s charges deserve to be in the top eight, they have done well to lift themselves up from the nightmare that is the bottom half to where they are right now.

What the team needs:

The coach has good ideas and has not lost what Foppe de Haan tried to build. The principle of carpet football is still there

• A new left back, or at least someone to cover for Aidan Jenniker
• Terror is not scoring goals but he’s a good striker - get him a partner who will actually score -George Okpabio isuseless period
• Perhaps it’s time we raided Supersport for a certain Mabhudi Khenyeza

Assemble the army of Warriors and prepare for a new battle another season.

Still Urban Warrior

THE SA national under 23 soccer team started its road to the London Olympics on a bad note, losing 2 - 0 to Algeria in a warm-up game.

They are preparing for the Cap Championships, a tournament where the top three teams qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

The Loss - let’s find someone to blame for it - the coach Shakes Mashaba, the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and the SA Football Association (Safa).

Admin

South African football is starting to stink and the odour won’t be going anywhere soon until we fix things. This all should start with the people in charge of soccer in the country.

The situation with the under-23 is really ridiculous and South Africans should not stand for it. 

What is even more appalling and ridiculous about this club versus country thing is that Safa and the PSL are letting this slide. These clubs should be forced to let these players go or be fined if they refuse to. How many times should our national teams have to suffer because of these selfish teams.

Lost Opportunity

A PSL team not wanting to release players for the under-23 which is preparing for important Olympic qualifying matches is unacceptable.

First it was Ajax Cape Town not wanting to release Thulani Serero and Thulani Hlatshwayo for an Olympic qualifier in June. They later release Sameehg Doutie but not the two other players. The less said about Pirates saying Andile Jali was too tired for the game the better.

Now five months on Mashaba is faced with the same dilemma as coaches are still refusing to release players. Sundowns coach Johan Neeskens’ refusal to free Wandisile Letlabika, Jabulani Shongwe and Themba Zwane for Amaglug-glug shows just how much the PSL teams disrespect our national teams.   

These players are being robbed an opportunity to play at a big stage and getting used to it.

Yes teh teams are paying the salaries - as Thulani Hlatshwayo tells Kick-Off magazine - but not so long ago, the very same clubs who are refusing to free players were complaining that their players were being overlooked

According to kick-off.com only eight of the locally based players have pitched up for the camp.

Amaglug-glug are to depart for Morocco on November 16, and are scheduled to play Ivory Coast in their first match on November 27.

Trying to prove something?

Unless there’s a compelling reason or a story behind it, I would like for coach Mashaba to explain why Serero and Jali were left out for the camp. I didn’t hear anything about them being injured and Pitso Mosimane certainly didn’t have them in his plans for the Nelson Mandela Challenge game this past weekend.

Is the coach trying to prove that he can do without these players? These two players were the integral part of the under-20 squad which made it to the last 16 of the 2009 Fifa World Cup.    

GROWING up in the township boys are expected to play with toy guns and cars sometimes made of wires or simply rocks. Girls were in their comfort while play house with little dollies, plastic pots and pans - those were the days.
Not swaying from the subject matter if you were to mismatch the two and decide to cross the floor or “bat for the other side” as some like to call it, one would be labelled with names like “sissy boy”, “mama’s boy” or “tomboy” if you were a girl.
Younger girls and boys would get away with it because they were other “experimenting” or going through a phase.
But as they grew older, those same people somehow those “habits” stick with them, in for most young people to discover their sexuality.
Most of the time it is a bitter pill to swallow for parents to hear that their children were gay or lesbian.
These parents had dreams of marriage for their kids and were hoping for a few grandchildren along the way. Can we blame these children for this, aren’t we being hyprocritical when we crucify them fo who they are or who they want to be. Although most parents end up accepting their some of the children are disowned, cast away or banished – in rural villages.
It is not only that, that people in the lesbian and gay community because society is also faced with the harshness nature of not being welcomed by society.
They are attacked, and constantly have to defend themselves because of their sexual orientation.
One of those people is Gcogco. Since coming as a lesbian four years ago, she has been attacked, had altercation and been sworn at because she is a lesbian.
Although her mother has accepted her as the person she is, she is still having a tough time getting acceptance from her community. When asked what the general reaction was when she came out of the closet, she joked: “I come out every day so i can’t really tell”.
A year and half ago, while in town with her partner a group of men harassed them because of their orientation. “I don’t know how exactly how they knew we were (lesbian). I think it’s because my partner is a bit butch. They said she was stealing their girlfriends and that they would make us right,” she said.
Names like dykes, stabane (gays in Zulu) were attired by the young men before the two women were attacked, she recalls.
They pulled her with a handful of her own locks and threw her on the ground. She hit the dirt with the back of her head but fortunately nothing was fractured. Except for a gash on the forehead and a few scratches on her hands, her partner survived the attack.
This was the most serious of the three attacks since she came out early 2008.
She gets up and recites a poem about surviving all the attacks. While pouring her out to a packed hall in Khayelitsha, her face reads of someone who feels pain but is not yet ready to give up.
Although they were not raped or killed like other lesbians who have become tragic statistics in their fight against “corrective rape” and being accepted by their communities.
The country’s constitution however is not doing lesbians, gay, transgender and inter sexed people any favours. At the moment the constitution does not recognise “corrective rape” – a term used to describe the rape of lesbians to “cure” them of their sexual orientation - as a hate crime. Crimes perpetrated on the basis of religion and race, are however recognised.

Although government has agreed to make amendments to the regulations, some feel this is not enough to curb the violent attacks on lesbians and gays.

Zoliswa Nkonyana, a known lesbian in Khayelitsha was raped and killed by a group of young men in 2005 because she was a lesbian.

Her case has been postponed more than 30 times causing a furore of anger from NGO’s advocating against violence on lesbians, gays, bisexuals and inter-sexed people.

What justice is there if there murders of Zoliswa and others,who include a woman who was a gem in woman’s soccer Eudy Simelane. 

If you wanna see what I’m blabbing on about check out : http://www.blacklooks.org/2011/03/free-gender/