Ethan Brooks of AmaZulu celebrates goal during the Betway Premiership 2024/25 match between Richards Bay and AmaZulu at the King Zwelithini Stadium, Durban on the 30 November 2024 ©Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix
Smiso Msomi
AmaZulu co-coaches Vusumuzi ‘Kanu’ Vilakazi and Arthur Zwane have seemingly officially launched the rebranding of the club following a memorable win over Richards Bay.
On Saturday, Usuthu put The Natal Rich Boyz to the sword with vintage performance and goals by Rowan Human, Godspower Ighodaro and Ethan Brooks in Umlazi. That win moved AmaZulu off the bottom of the Betway Premiership standings and took them as high as 13th spot.
FULL-TIME ⏰ | #BetwayPremiership 🏆
— AmaZulu FC (@AmaZuluFootball) November 30, 2024
Goals from Rowan Human, Ethan Brooks and Etiosa Ighodaro secure victory at King Zwelithini Stadium.
Richards Bay 1⃣ ➖ 3⃣ #AmaZuluFC#ThatsPower#HebeUsuthu#UsuthuTogether pic.twitter.com/guONHh8aUl
Although pleasing to see from a neutral standpoint, it was not the goals that caught the eye in this encounter but the style and elegance Usuthu got the job done.
Given their dominance over domestic honours, many would've likened Usuthu to Mamelodi Sundowns’ famous ‘shoe-shine and piano’ but that performance rolled back the years to when Vilakazi himself played for Golden Arrows.
Surrounded by the likes of Papi Zothwane, Abia Nale and Thanduyise Khuboni at the time, Kanu and co. glided with flair all over the pitch with their close-knit passes and an x-factor at the time.
Kanu and Zwane have seemingly relaunched the careers of Human and Brooks at Usuthu, who ran proceedings on the day in midfield.
Speaking after the match, Vilakazi expressed how the type of personnel they have at their disposal has made their adjustment quicker. The identity and philosophy is determined by the players you have,” he expressed
“We are fortunate to have too many ball players in our team, which is something we also prefer but ball possession without penetration is useless. We are better now than a few weeks ago and we’ll continue to improve.”
Richards Bay had no answer for AmaZulu in the 90 minutes, except for a five-minute spell caused by Usuthu’s jittery defence.
The AmaZulu technical team seemed to have their tactics spot on despite having to reconfigure their preparations following the dismissal of coach Brandon Truter on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, what we were preparing was something else because the coach left because we had planned according to what we thought coach Brandon Truter would do,” said Vilakazi
He further explained: “But we readjusted in the past two days because we anticipated that the approach might be different, instead of having five at the back, they might have four and that's what happened so I think we were spot on with that one.”
AmaZulu’s next fixture sees them travel to fellow strugglers TS Galaxy next Saturday and Vilakazi believes the upcoming games will reveal the next levels of AmaZulu
“Moving forward I think we have the right confidence in the team as well as the chemistry from the players. This is not the better of AmaZulu that you saw now, we're still a work in progress and we will do better going forward,” he expressed.
To ensure they stay away from the relegation battle, Usuthu will have to manoeuvre a difficult run of fixtures in the coming weeks with the likes of Royal AM, Cape Town City, Arrows and Sekhukhune United lined up next.