AmaZulu FC duo of Hendrick Ekstein and Veli Mothwa are targeting maximum points when they face Maritzburg United in the KwaZulu-Natal Derby on Sunday.
Ekstein, who made six appearances for Usuthu so far, says playing good football without scoring will not take them anywhere – as pointed out in a heated post-match incident by head coach Benni McCarthy last week.
The 30-year-old midfielder, though, believes that his side will turn things around, and score goals even though it will not be easy in the derby.
“Obviously as a team, we have been preparing after we played a draw yesterday (Sunday) against Chiefs, so today we are from training, we are preparing for Maritzburg,” he told the club’s media department.
“It’s not going to be an easy match as you know a derby is not an easy match to play and because it’s a KZN Derby and playing against Maritzburg that lost against Kaizer Chiefs I think, so it’s not going to be an easy match, it’s going to be a tough one, but we are ready for the match.
“The only thing for us, we have to do, we are playing a good football whereby we need to score goals, but we are creating chances in fact, but we are not scoring goals. It’s not the strikers’ problem is our problems as the players from the defence, midfield to the strikers.
“So the only thing we have to do is to score goals because we are playing good football, but the good football without goals, it’s nothing we can do in football with ball possession.
“So, we need to score goals for us to win matches. And the last match we won, I think it was Cape Town City. So, this one I think we have to redeem ourselves and get three points.”
Meanwhile, Mothwa is worried about dropping points in the past two games, but he is confident that they will get back to chasing the league title.
“It’s a very important match because it’s been two games we haven’t won, we played draws and out of nine points, we only collected two points. So for record from last season, especially for AmaZulu, I think we lost most of the points where we were supposed to win the games,” Mothwa explained.
“So this game coming Sunday is an important game that we need to get three points. So, we can get back our ourselves back on track when we get them going up from a position eight to somewhere maybe six, five so,”
Usuthu will be the visitors at Harry Gwala Stadium on Sunday in the DStv Premiership clash, with the match pencilled for 17:30.
