A baptism of fire awaits AmaZulu’s new coach Romain Folz when Usuthu lock horns against Orlando Pirates on Friday evening.
The 32-year-old Moroccan coach is the youngest coach in the league. Folz, who netted the top coaching job at Usuthu at the weekend, has already started training his charges.
Next to him on the touchline will be the legend of the club, Ayanda Dlamini, who has been appointed as AmaZulu assistant coach.
The age factor is believed to be one of the reasons Folz did not last long at Marumo Gallants, which signed him at the start of the season two months ago.
He did not see eye to eye with Gallants technical director Harris “TV4” Choeu, which impacted negatively on their working relationship. Folz was in charge of Marumo for five games, losing one match and drawing four.
He left the club hours before kick-off against Swallows FC at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, Limpopo in September. Central to his departure were allegations that he was getting instructions from club bosses on who to field on match day, which he viewed as interference.
Shortly after denying the allegations, Gallants released a statement announcing that they were parting ways with the youthful coach who previously coached Ghana’s Ashante Gold and Township Rollers in Botswana.
Folz will be relieved that his first game at Usuthu will be against a misfiring Pirates, who have not scored in three matches.
The goal drought continued in their MTN8 semi-final clash against Mamelodi Sundowns over a week ago, having scored their last goal when they beat TS Galaxy 2-0 on September 10.
After the Sundowns draw, Bucs lost 2-0 to Sekhukhune United and were held to a goalless draw by Richards Bay on Saturday.
The prevailing situation leaves Bucs head coach Jose Riveiro with a big headache, and he needs to quickly turn things around and get his strikers firing again. None of Bucs forward players Zakhele Lepasa, Eva Nga, Deon Hotto, and Fortune Makaringe have found the net more than once this season.
Recently, Pirates captured the signature of Kermit Erasmus and a lot will be expected from the stocky forward in his second stint at the club. The game against Usuthu will be played at the Orlando Stadium and kick-off is at 7.30pm.
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