AmaZulu, Chippa United, Black Leopards and Baroka FC ... who will avoid the relegation axe?
DURBAN - While scores of soccer fans in South Africa are holding their breath for the championship decider on Saturday, there will be a titanic battle for survival involving four teams at the bottom at the same time.
AmaZulu, Chippa United, Black Leopards and Baroka FC are all fighting to save their elite league status as one will be relegated automatically and a second-from-the-bottom finisher will have to do battle in the play-offs.
Usuthu are 13th on the 16-team log with 29 points. The Durban club has become serial relegation candidates as they have suffered the drop four times.
They fired two coaches this season and are now guided by caretaker coach Ayanda Dlamini, who made his name at Usuthu as a striker before retirement.
Dlamini was promoted to the first team after the club suspended Josef Vukusic. Before that he mentored AmaZulu's MultChoice Diski Challenge side.
In his debut game, he defied the odds as he led Usuthu to a surprise victory over log leaders Kaizer Chiefs but they could not use that momentum because immediately after that game, Covid-19 struck.
Since the resumption of the season, Usuthu have had a mixed bag of results which has seen them shifting to the safer 13th place but the gap is so small among the bottom teams that any one of them could still drop.
AmaZulu will square off against Highlands Park in their last encounter tomorrow. Polokwane, who lost to title chasers Mamelodi Sundowns on Wednesday, have virtually been relegated and it is now AmaZulu, Chippa and Baroka that are fighting to avoid the playoffs.
Dlamini is still new in his position as the head coach of Usuthu. It is an identical situation for Chippa United. Lehlohonolo Seema recently joined the Chilli Boys from Bloemfontein Celtic. He was enjoying his time Celtic.
Seema is under immense pressure to show his worth as a coach. Chippa are in desperate need of one point and they will need to take advantage of poorly performing Golden Arrows.
The Chilli Boys will be heading into that encounter with some confidence after only narrowly losing 1-0 to leader Chiefs on Wednesday.
Black Leopards have a more difficult outing against Sundowns who still hope that Amakhosi will slip up and they can steal the title. This game is sure to be the real deal as both contenders need all the points.
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