Chiefs’ Ben Youssef – ‘The most important thing was winning’

Kaizer Chiefs co-head coach Khalil Ben Youssef was happy his side showed they could win ‘ugly’ after their 1-0 Betway Premiership win at Durban City on Friday evening.

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Flavio Da Silva came off the bench to net the winning goal with three minutes left, powering a header past Darren Keet.

Chiefs’ lethargic display

The match, however, was generally a poor advert for the Premiership, with both teams battling to create openings.

Ben Youssef put Chiefs’ lethargic display down to fatigue after reaching the Caf Confederation Cup group stages the previous weekend. Amakhosi scored three goals for the first time this season in beating AS Simba 3-1.

“We expected a tough game,” said Ben Youssef.

“It was hard to keep the same performance after winning the cup game and qualifying for the group stage. It is difficult to keep the same mentality … we saw Stellenbosch lost 4-0 to Gallants.”

Stellenbosch also reached the Caf Confederation Cup group stages and were then thumped by Gallants in the Carling Knockout quarterfinals.

“The most important thing was winning,” added Ben Youssef.

“Last season we had a lot of games at the start of the season where we put in a good performance but were not getting the result. Now it is only about winning. We are happy if the performance comes with winning, but the first thing is winning.”

Da Silva came in for some frankly unfair criticism from Chiefs fans during pre-season, but already has three Premiership goals, despite playing only around two hours of top flight football.

‘We are so happy’

“We are so happy Silva could come off the bench and score for the second game (he also scored the winner against Golden Arrows as a substitute),” said Ben Youssef.

“After the Gallants game he got an injury, now he is back. Even for the last game he was injured on Matchday -1, he had a headache so he was not available for the (Confed) Cup game.”

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Chiefs’ Betway Premiership campaign continues on Tuesday when they host Orbit College at FNB Stadium.