AmaZulu FC Head Coach Arthur Zwane has given his reflections on Usuthu’s hard-fought 1-0 Betway Premiership home win over Marumo Gallants on Tuesday night.
“I think we started off brightly. We looked like we could score at any given time. In the first 20 minutes, we created a couple of chances that we should have capitalized on but didn’t. When you’ve got the opposition on the ropes and they allow you to create chances, you have to punish them. We could have killed the game in the first half; we had about four clear-cut chances and should have gone into the break at least 1-0 up,” said Zwane.
He added: “The good thing is that we managed not to concede towards the end of the first half, because that’s when they usually score their goals – either early in the game or late in the half. Instead, it was us who capitalized on a dead-ball situation. Even before that, we could have scored from open play.”
On his team’s second-half display, Zwane noted: “I think we started well again. Early in the half we had a 2v1 against the keeper but again, poor decision-making in front of goal let us down. That’s part of working with youngsters at this level – the game is the best teacher. They’ll keep learning. At times you want to be harsh on them because results matter, but we can’t fault their effort. The defense, especially, deserves credit – they’ve worked very hard and kept two clean sheets at home. We want to maintain that.”
The result ended Gallants’ impressive two-match winning streak, handing them their first loss of the season.
Usuthu now shift focus to back-to-back away fixtures: against an in-form Sekhukhune United at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium on 27 August, followed by Magesi FC at Seshego Stadium on 30 August.
