AmaZulu impressively beat their KZN rivals Royal AM 3-0 at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in a DStv Premiership fixture on Friday evening. Usuthu took full charge of the match by dominating the first half and going home having kept a clean sheet.
Royal AM’s leaky defence made sure that AmaZulu took the lead early in the match as Mlondi Mbanjwa was left unmarked in the penalty area and fired his shot into the corner of the net in the 13th minute. Mbanjwa had another chance to score a goal shortly afterwards, unfortunately the build-up was too slow and Royal were able to clear the ball quickly.
Hendrick Ekstein also had an opportunity to score following that incident when he was one on one with the opponents goalkeeper but once again the ball was cleared away to safety for Royal AM. Usuthu seemed to be a little wasteful with their chances after scoring their first goal, but eventually found the back of the net once again.
Augustine Kwem finally pounced on the chances that the team had in the 26th minute after receiving a pass from the midfield, resulting in him scoring his fifth goal of the season. Four minutes later, Kwem struck again and grabbed his brace as he put away his shot in the goal once more.
In the second half, Usuthu kept up the pressure and worked increasingly harder to keep from conceding a goal. Royal AM started to pick up in terms of their performance as Olwethu Mzimela was put to work after saving a shot from Siphiwe Cele, which was the first shot on target from the opposition.
Both teams didn’t score in the second half, leaving the match ending with a 3-0 scoreline in favour of Usuthu. Mlondi Mbanjwa was voted the Man of the Match as the team walked away with three points. The win from Usuthu takes them all the way up to 7th place with 22 points in the DStv Premiership.
