The Amakhosi clinched their first major title since 2025, booked their place in the CAF Confederation Cup, and claimed the bragging rights by beating their arch rivals, Orlando Pirates, 2-1 in the final.

The Glamour Boys opened the scoring as early as the 10th minute when Gastón Sirino found the back of the net from a penalty. But, the joy was short-lived when the Bafana Bafana forward, Evidence Makgopa, levelled matters some seven minutes later.

Kaizer Chiefs vs. Orlando Pirates. Photo: Kaizer Chiefs

The stalemate was broken 10 minutes from the end of regulation time when the Chiefs midfielder, Moegamat Yusuf Maart, scored the winning goal.

Following the win, the under-fire Chiefs coach, Nasreidine Nabi, said the title was the first step in restoring the club to its rightful place in South African football. “My first objective for the club is to place Kaizer Chiefs back in its natural position,” said Nabi.

“I’m happy for this trophy because it is going to help me continue my process, and it is going to give the fans a lot more confidence in this project.

Kaizer Chiefs vs. Orlando Pirates. Photo: Kaizer Chiefs

“Orlando Pirates understood how important it is to build your team. If you looked at how they played today and how they played last season, you would realise that they are a completely different team.

“That means, sometimes, you don’t want to get things right away, you need to give time to rebuild and to allow yourself to suffer and to rebuild to be better.”

His Pirates counterpart, Jose Riveiro, who guided the Sea Robbers in a cup final for the last time, said the win was a bitter pill to swallow, but that this is the nature of cup football, and they had their chances.

“What you are saying is an accumulation of experiences in big games, where most of the time, things don’t start for us the way we want them to, and we’ve had to show special courage and resilience.

Kaizer Chiefs vs. Orlando Pirates. Photo: Kaizer Chiefs

“But in this final, we arrived in the final stages of the game, not as sharp as we usually are, and we couldn’t cope when the Chiefs had that good ten-minute spell.

“Ugly match. Both sides didn't produce much football. I think in the first half we only experienced a few problems, territorially, we were superior.

“We had opportunities to score the second goal in the first half, but in the second half, the game became even uglier, it became more physical, and more interruptions started to take over.”

While it took ten years for the Chiefs to win a title again, they have extended their record as the most successful team in the National Cup with a record-extending 14th title.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cg