Kaizer Chiefs had to manage Soweto Derby distractions going to the Free Agents game
27th January 2025
By
Kaizer Chiefs assistant coach Khalil Ben Youssef admits they had one eye on the Soweto Derby as they cruised to the Nedbank Cup last 16 stage.
Chiefs thrashed Gauteng’s ABC Motsepe League representatives Free Agents FC 4-0 at the FNB Stadium on Sunday night.
Amakhosi play the on-song arch-rivals Orlando Pirates in their first Soweto derby this season, but they needed to deal with this cup game first.
Ben Youssef revealed that they also had to manage a few players, who were on three yellow cards, including Samkelo Zwane and Njabulo Blom.
"We did well in the first half, we scored two goals which made the game more easy for us. I think also we have to manage this game because we have next week you know that we have the derby so we have to manage some players, they have three yellow cards, Samkelo, Blom, Tshabalala, we took a risk with him but we discussed [it],” Ben Youssef said.
“You know there's a lot of pressure when you play this kind of game against lower division and also we think next game we're playing a derby. So, it's difficult to keep concentration for the players, they think about this game but also, they are preparing for the next game but I think this game was not bad.
“We qualified and now we have to think about the next game and prepare for the next game."
A brace from Pule Mmodi, and goals from Inacio Miguel and Ranga Chivaviro, were enough to see Amakhosi gliding past the third-tier side.
Last season, Chiefs were eliminated in the last 32 stage of this competition by Milford FC from the Motsepe Foundation Championship, and Ben Youssef says they focused a lot on that result coming to this game, to avoid repeating the same mistake.
"Honestly, we spoke a lot of the time about last season when we lost against a team from the lower division. It's not smart to make the same mistake two times, so we showed them last season how it was, if you want to play the derby, you have to win this game, you have to do well in this game then you can prepare for the next game but if you think about the derby and you are not ready today then you'll also not be ready for the derby,” the coach added.
“We discuss a lot of things with them, we even have individual meetings, even yesterday we had individual meetings for the players to encourage them and to push them to focus only on this game.
“Games against lower divisions are always difficult because there is a lot of pressure on our side, not like them, they don't have pressure. If they win, they are surprised if they lose, no one can blame them."
