With the ABSA Premiership title contenders not in action this weekend, the focus shifts to the relegation threatened teams. Bottom of the log Amazulu will host second from the bottom Polokwane City at Durban’s Kings Park Stadium on Sunday.
Action already resumed on Friday evening with top eight candidates, Maritzburg United, at home to the rejuvenated Cape Town City.
Current log leaders Kaizer Chiefs will get a much needed break this weekend, with second placed Mamelodi Sundowns and the other league contenders, Bidvest Wits, involved in the CAF inter-club competitions.
But all eyes will be on the bottom half of the log, with very little separating the teams. The bottom three teams, Black Leopards, Polokwane City and Amazulu, have all collected 17 points so far this season.
Amazulu coach Jozef Vukusic says his main mandate when he was brought to the club was to save Usuthu from relegation.
“They brought me for that here and from first day, we knew that it could be like that. This is a difficult season; I came in the middle of the season. We rebuilt the team and first day when I saw the situation in the league, I told them ‘guys, we will try everything but it can be that we play until last round.’ That is football so you have seasons like that.”
On the other hand, 13th placed Baroka FC will want to build on their 2-1 home win last weekend when they visit the inconsistent Highlands Park in Tembisa on Saturday evening.
“Yeah, I think we must take each game as it comes; as long as we get points. I think it’s very important for the team, more especially moving away from that position down there. We are looking forward to the next match, we want to forget about this one and 10 we move on.”
Orlando Pirates will be chasing their fifth win in a row since the arrival of their German coach Josef Zinnbauer. The only blemish on Zinnbauer’s card is the 1-1 draw away to Bloemfontein Celtic at the beginning of January.
The German has attributed the team’s winning streak to his entire technical bench.
“My staff, they work very hard with me and they give me a lot of information for my system and thanks for this. We didn’t do more; we changed the system a little bit. We changed the tactics a little bit and the results are coming. We always able to shoot at goal and we are able to defend our goal and these are the things that we do.”
