The budding future Usuthu heroes stood their ground on Sunday, 25 May 2014, at Riverside Sports Ground in their respective Durban Central LFA age group matches against rivals Riverside FC.

The AmaZulu U13s were beaten 2-1 by the Riverside U13s in the opening encounter which was played at 09h00.

Decisiveness in front of goal was one of the few contributing factors which led to coach Sazi Ngubane’s young troops not being able to score ample goals to force a positive result against the Riverside U13 side. Damien Pillay scored AmaZulu’s goal.

Next were the AmaZulu’s U15 players, who received one of their most endearing lessons in their young football experience as they were held 5-5 by Riverside’s U15 team. The home team came from 5-1 down in the second half to salvage a point in true never-say-die fashion.

Phytides Marco bagged himself a hat-trick in the first half when the young Usuthu were in the driving seat while Badat Tarig scored a brace.

The heat of the winter midday could not dampen the exciting performance the AmaZulu U17s were determined to dish up in an effort to salvage some pride for their more junior peers.

Left-footed forward sensation Dylon Stoffel opened the scoring six minutes into kick-off with a header when he latched onto a cross from the right-wing before blasting two more goals later to round up his hat-trick.

Thulani Mkhwanazi, who had come on from the benc,h powered home a right-footed scorcher right after the halftime break.

A rare attack by the home side yielded a consolidation goal for Riverside in the second half after they had been kept at bay by a brilliant Alex Phytides between the sticks for Usuthu.

Luthando Qwabe also got onto the score sheet before setting up a penalty when he was brought down in the box by the Riverside defence. Graham Pratt converted the spot kick with ease to make it 6-1.

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