AmaZulu's Siphamandla Zikhali and Durban City's Thabo Ndoda go for the ball during their Betway Premiership match.
Image: Backpagepix
Durban City managed a Top 8 finish despite suffering a tense 1–0 defeat to coastal rivals AmaZulu in the final match of the season at home at the Chatsworth Stadium on Saturday — a result that saw Durban finish the league campaign with 10 games without a win.
The opening minutes of the clash looked like a quintessential matchday at Chatsworth, with the Blues completely swarming all over Usuthu. The home side's midfield unit and dynamic wingers did exceptionally well to cut past the AmaZulu backline and ask highly dangerous questions of the visitors' defence.
Conversely, AmaZulu's solitary option to transition into attack was limited to long aerial balls — which Siphamandla Ncanana and Mfanafuthi Mkhize dealt with comfortably and effectively.
Usuthu finally consolidated tactical control around the 20-minute mark and started pushing forward into the final third with some slick, sequential passing. AmaZulu quickly seized the momentum, swinging the contest back in their favour and missing two clear-cut chances at goal in a rapid sequence.
Durban were incredibly lucky not to be 2–0 down before the half-hour mark. Athini Makaqola proved to be an absolute nightmare for the Durban defence, constantly manipulating loose cracks in the backline. Kyle Jurgens failed to deliver his usual commanding midfield performance, noticeably struggling to find a decisive final pass on the counter-attack. Consequently, Durban slowly fell onto the backfoot by the half-hour mark, failing to sustain any meaningful pressure on Usuthu.
Makaqola missed another glorious shot on goal after a sharp through-ball completely split the Durban backline. Fortune was clearly on Durban's side during the opening stanza, having been thoroughly outplayed for large portions of the half. Compounding their tactical issues, City goalkeeper Frederick Asare suffered an injury during Makaqola’s attack — forcing the soon-to-be-retired veteran Darren Keet into league action one last time this season.
Makaqola remained Durban's biggest individual threat in the opening half, but Durban opened the second 45 minutes on an absolute high, with midfielder Thabo Nodada almost sinking a spectacular volley shortly after the restart.
Sphiwe Mahlangu very nearly put Durban into the lead in the 49th minute as AmaZulu struggled to transition cleanly into the Blues' half. Keet then almost gifted Usuthu a breakthrough goal in his final league appearance, but his responsive backline was on hand to immediately clean up the veteran's error.
The game ensued fairly deadlocked in the middle of the pitch from there. Both teams continuously struggled to find a quality final touch to break the deadlock after an hour of intense play. However, following a sustained push into the Durban penalty box, Nkosikhona Radebe beautifully headed the ball into the top corner to give Usuthu the lead in the 75th minute.
Durban controlled the lions' share of possession during the closing stages, but AmaZulu maintained far better control of their nerves over the final 10 minutes. Usuthu held out comfortably for the 1–0 finish to cement a fantastic fourth-place standing in the league, Durban City finished finished in eighth position.