From the bottom to the top: Craig Rosslee explains his 10-month revolution at AmaZulu

Leader of the green revolution: Craig Rosslee

Explain this: Ten months ago, AmaZulu were marooned at the bottom of the PSL. Today, they are level on points at the top of South African fooball.

It’s the kind of turnaround which creates legends in Europe. But in South Africa, AmaZulu’s rise from the ashes has gone almost unnoticed.

The key to the AmaZulu revolution is the coach Craig Rosslee, a former Hellenic, Santos and Cape Town Spurs defender who went on to coach Ajax Cape Town and played a major part in Orlando Pirates first treble as assistant to Ruud Krol in 2009/2010.

When Rosslee took over AmaZulu in November last year, the famous cries of Usuthu! were muted. The club had managed just nine points from 12 games under Swedish boss Roger Palmgren and they trailed behind Chippa United and Leopards, the clubs destined for relegation. Under Rosslee, they took 20 points from their remaining 18 games to secure safety in 12^th position.

This season they have 11 points from their first five games and share the top of the PSL with SuperSport United, Kaizer Chiefs, Mamelodi Sundowns and Moroka Swallows.

Rosslee, also an accomplished television analyst, told me on my football show BOLLOCKZ! on Ballz visual radio (see video at the foot of this story): “Ten months! Obviously my first task was to keep the club up last season. We had nine points when I arrived, we got clear of relegation, we ended safely in mid-table.

“At the end of the season we decided to make some changes. We shipped out 17 players, brought in 15. We only kept a handful of the old players.

“At this point in time it’s a work in progress. The aim is to get the players to gel, to get them playing together. It’s coming along nicely now. We’re doing it in a very professional way, we have character, guys who do the work. That’s what we’re looking for.

“If this squad can apply themselves, both on and off the field, I see a great future for the club.”

In charge of one of South Africa’s oldest clubs (founded in 1932 only Wits University (1921) is older), Rosslee grins: “Remember I played for AmaZulu, like you I remember the Joel Fayas. This job is more about what I can give back than what I can take from this club.

“The Royal Family back us, the people look to us. Things stagnated. South African football in general has to find a way to move forward, and we have a duty to encourage development too.

“We’re lacking goals in this country. How do we address that? I’m happy to work on that generally, with all the other clubs.

“We have to find goals. Look at Gavin Hunt at Wits. He’s spoiled for choice up front but still doesn’t get them. How do we get players to score goals?

Hot shot: Ayanda Dlamini

“I need strikers who can score more than five goals a season. I have to get goals from other positions too if we’re not going to get 15 or 20 goals out of a striker. We need wide men to can put the ball in the right place.

“Apart from Bongani Ndulula, our predominant target man is Ayanda Dlamini, he took a while to get on centre stage, he’s 28 now. But he’s getting the goals that get us out of trouble. He’s a fantastic finisher.

“You have to work with the strikers, get them to hit the target, hit the target. Because often that’s not done at the development stage you know.

“The fact of the matter is we’ve still got to work on these lads, get them to develop their skills while they’re playing at the top level of football in South Africa.”

With a near-fullhouse at the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban on Saturday to witness Platinum Stars’ surprise penalty shoot-out MTN8 final win over Orlando Pirates, Rosslee believes a successful AmaZulu can awake the dormant fans in the port city.

He insists: “I would love to see the stadium full for games against all sides in the PSL. I believe if we play the right brand of football we can do that. That needs to be reflected across the country. Play attacking football and the fans will come.”

BOLLOCKZ! my show on www.ballz.co.za, airs every Thursday from 10am-noon. See the Ballz channel on Youtube for our growing collection of interviews like the one above.

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news… and read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday inwww.thenewage.co.za.

BOLLOCKZ! is backed by www.topodds.com - have a look at their site for my latest sports betting advice!

EXCLUSIVE: Siyanda Xulu "disappointed" at being over-looked for Bafana's defeat against Nigeria - in his home town

On top of his game: Siyanda Xulu is on
on top of the world with Rostov in Russia

Gallo Images

SIYANDA XULU has expressed disappointment and frustration after being over-looked for South Africa’s disappointing 2-0 defeat against Nigeria in his hometown on Wednesday.

Just a fortnight ago, former Mamelodi Sundowns defender Xulu marked the world’s best player, Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, out of the game when his underdogs Rostov beat billionaire Suleyman Kerimov’s Anzhi  Makhachkala 1-0.

Even that wasn’t enough to earn a call from SAFA but the 21-year-old from KwaMashu insists: “I hope to be back in Gordon Igesund’s thinking for the final World Cup qualifier against Botswana on September 7 at the Moses Mabhida.”

Xulu, speaking on my football show BOLLOCKZ on www.ballz.co.za yesterday morning, told me: “Nobody from Bafana made any contact. I was very disappointed, we were top of the Russian League. I’m doing very well for my club, we are winning, I am playing. Of course I was disappointed.

“I’m a KwaMashu boy, I always miss home, you always do. I wanted to come home and play in this game in Durban.

“I didn’t get to see the Nigeria defeat because they didn’t show it in Russia but I got to hear from my parents and some friends. They told me. Bafana didn’t have much of a good game I hear, especially when we were the ones playing a home, near where I grew up. We always like to beat Nigeria.

“At Rostov were are on the same points as No1, we have played four, won three, drawn one. We have made a good start.

“The best was beating Anzhi Makhachkala, the richest club in Russia – they were the runners-up here in the league last season. We played very well, we didn’t concede a goal, we won 1-0. It was very hard. We managed!

“I marked Samuel Eto’o, the best-paid striker in the world. It was quite difficult! He was kept quiet (laughs), he tried, you could see in his face he was frustrated, he wanted a goal. But I was trying my best to keep him quiet.

“Playing at Rostov has taught me a lot. I have come here to achieve a lot. In South Africa we don’t have the concrete development structures they have in Russia. Obviously you have to work hard, we match them skill-wise but technically it’s much quicker than South African football.

“My team Rostov is doing very well, it means a lot Neal, as a player you always want to do well, financially and on the pitch.

“I think if you have a chance to play in Europe, your South African team should let you go. It’s good for our nation and it’s good for Bafana.

“It was very frustrating when I tried to leave. At first I went to Barcelona, I was going to go but the president left. They were impressed, Atletico Madrid then offered me a contract and Mamelodi Sundowns said it wasn’t good enough.

“When I had the opportunity to go to Russia, they did it again, but I got here in the end. I don't understand why South African clubs make it so difficut.

“I think any young South Africa with a chance to go overseas should take it. It’s hard, you miss home, but it’s worth it. You become a better player.

“I hope I get to prove that against Botswana next month.”

BOLLOCKZ! my show on www.ballz.co.za, airs every Thursday from 10am-noon. See my Siyanda Xulu interview below - and further videos on the Ballz site, where I talk to Shakes Khunwane, THE MOLE and Oluwashina Okeleji of the BBC World Service about Bafana's abject defeat against Nigeria.

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news… and read my “Neal & Pray” column every Tuesday inwww.thenewage.co.za. A shorter version of THIS story will be published in The New Age on Tuesday.

BOLLOCKZ! is backed by www.topodds.com - have a look at their site for my latest sports betting advice!

From Russia with love: All you ever wanted to know about Siyanda Xulu, but were afraid to ask

KwaMashu Kid: Bafana's Siyanda Xulu

Siyanda Xulu came Russian back home to South Africa yesterday, significantly encouraged by the news that BOTH of Bafana Bafana’s incumbent central defenders are now OUT of Saturday’s crucial World Cup qualifier.

Xulu moved to Rostov in Russia during the January transfer window – at R6m his move from Mamelodi Sundowns makes him the most expensive player in Gordon Igesund’s current squad – and was left out of the African Cup of Nations 23 after attending the gathering for the game against Malawi in a pre-AFCON friendly.

But with captain Bongani Khumalo and Orlando Pirates’ goal-scoring rock Siyabonga Sangweni both now out of contention, there is every chance Xulu, still just 21, will start at the Cape Town stadium.

Both Khumalo and Sangweni carry fascinating tales. Khumalo was backed to the hilt by Igesund when he was accused of being too good at English and even better at ball-watching during AFCON. But last Friday Igesund dismissed him thus: “Bongani is not even in the team at PAOK in Greece – and I hear he’s carrying a slight injury. So I didn’t pick him.”

But he DID pick Sangweni, who clearly played in the Soweto derby carrying the knee injury that was supposed to put him out for six weeks. Roger de Sa clearly felt gambling in front of 90,000 was the right thing to do – and his side duly managed to keep a cleansheet in a 0-0 draw with their arch-rivals. Sangweni’s leadership – if not his mobility – clearly made that possible.

Before the squad announcement, we had been told that both Sangweni and his former team-mate Tokelo Rantie, now at Malmo in Sweden, were unavailable. But Gordon picked them both. Was this an effort to keep Buccaneering fans happy? Was he worried that, by naming Tower Mathoho and Morgan Gould in central-defence – it Amakhosi goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune assuming the captain’s armband – we might face a footballing civil war?

None of this politicking bothers Xulu. A calm, older-than-his-years sort of guy, I got hold of Xulu in Rostov last week, a few days after he had been named Man of the Match after a 0-0 draw against Alaniya in front of an audience spanning the length of the world’s largest nation.

Just how excited was he to have found a place back in the squad so soon after his AFCON disappointment? “No look,” he said between the crackles and delays of the international telephone network, “Whenever I get picked, it’s an honour. I have always believed it is important to play for South Africa. I am so proud.”

Of course, those may just be words. But for my money, Xulu appears to put patriotism before cash.

The very mention of the sprawling township of KwaZulu outside Durban brings out a whole new Siyanda: “I grew up in KwaMashu,” he recalls, “It will always be home. I live here in Russia on my own in an apartment.

“At first I missed my family, my friends, all my loved ones soooo much. But now I am starting to get used to living alone. I’m going to fly a friend out after the World Cup game for company.

“And it’s great to be asked to come home for this game. But I have travelled a lot.

“Two years ago I went to Barcelona on trial but just as they said they were going to sign me to their academy, they restructured (Joan Laporta was deposed as club president) and it all fell through.

“I also went to Arsenal and trained with them for two weeks. Arsene Wenger had some very nice things to say but then Atletico Madrid made a bid for me – they heard what happened at Barca – but that fell through too.

“So I came back and played in Mamelodi before Rostov made their bid. It was a long story, the price kept going up, but eventually I made the move."

The busy town of Rostov is no stranger to South African imports. Matthew Booth, Tony Coyle, Rowan Hendricks, Bennett Mnguni and Japhet Zwane all played for the mid-table Russian Premier League outfit, which has undergone a number of name changes since the club's creation in 1930. The town itself is around the size of Durban, a port on the banks of the River Don.

They currently lie 12th in the RPL, way behind leaders CSKA Moscow, big-spending Anzhi and St Petersburg glamour club Zenit. But with a fair wind and a couple more wins, they should survive in the 16-team table with a four-point cushion currently keeping them clear of the relegation zone.

With nine games left this season, Xulu accepts: “It was tough, but now I'm quite happy in Russia. It’s just the weather. And the language. The only things I can say in Russian are “left”, “right” and “hi”. I am learning the language but it’s very difficult – even the letters are different!

“That’s why I am so happy to come home for this game. A chance to see everyone again. If I am picked to start the game, that’s great. I will do what I can. The World Cup in Brazil next year is very important, I would love to be there.

“But whatever happens, playing for South Africa has always been, will always be my No 1 dream.”

THIS article also appears tomorrow as my "Neal and Pray" column in www.thenewage.co.za.