Senior Sports Reporter

WARRIORS coach Zdravko Logarusic insists he has not failed in his mandate as the Zimbabwe national football team coach despite the team's run of poor results.

The Croatian coach has had a bumpy ride in his tenure after seeing his team win only one game in 12 starts and losing seven, overall.

The 55-year-old coach has been under the spotlight lately after he hit a new low at the COSAFA Cup in South Africa. However, the Croatian said his contract is clear he should not be judged by anything apart from the AFCON and World Cup qualifying campaigns.

Despite the facts pointing to a poor run of results, he had the audacity to challenge the media for highlighting the grim statistics which have characterised his tenure as coach of the senior national team.

"I am seeing and I have been hearing in the last few days the media attacking me from all corners around Zimbabwe.

"Journalists have to do their job but some of them they are not doing the job properly. They are putting all those things together to create a story," said Loga.

He said he was mandated by ZIFA to qualify for the 2021 AFCON finals and the 2022 World Cup and has not failed in that regard.

But so far the Croatian has done little to convince the football-loving Zimbabwean public. The Warriors have been pathetic on the field of play and the results have not come their way.

"When I came here as a coach, our main target was to qualify for the AFCON. They (ZIFA) said, "coach you have to qualify for AFCON", and I did. And, they said "coach we have to go to the World Cup" and I said we'll come close and we'll do it.

"Those are two major tournaments. The other tournaments like CHAN and COSAFA should be bridge tournaments where we have to check some new players and give a chance to the other players that didn't have enough time to showcase themselves," Loga said. Loga was in charge of four games during the AFCON qualifiers. The Warriors had four points from two games when he inherited the team from interim coach, Joey Antipas.

Loga managed to pick four more points from a possible 12 as Zimbabwe laboured to cross the line and finished second in Group H, with eight points.

They secured the ticket to the AFCON finals along with reigning African champions Algeria, who claimed pole position, unbeaten in the group.

But apart from the qualification, it has been a horror show on the pitch for Zimbabwe in the last 18 months. The team has only won once in 12 games. The win came in the AFCON qualifiers when Zimbabwe edged Botswana 1-0 in the penultimate round of the qualifiers.

Then at the CHAN tournament, Zimbabwe finished bottom of the pile in the 16-team tournament after suffering three straight defeats in their group.

This was their worst CHAN record following the losses to hosts Cameroon, Mali and Burkina Faso in the group stages.

And, for the second straight tournament, Zimbabwe, under Loga, finished bottom of the overall standings at COSAFA Cup, which was won by South Africa at the weekend.

Six-time winners Zimbabwe bowed out of the tournament without a win, again their worst performance in the tournament's history. They also blew a 17-match unbeaten record, which had stood for six years, when they lost 0-2 to Namibia.

"Don't forget, those statistics that you're talking about me, I had four games here (at the COSAFA Cup) and three at CHAN, with players that didn't have proper preparation.

"We had between three to five days' preparation and they (Zimbabwe players) didn't play league matches in two years. So we have to accept those things without looking for excuses.

"I'm begging you; we have to be positive. The World Cup qualification is coming and we have to stay as a unit like we did against Algeria and Botswana. That's the way we are going to make progress. In the meantime, we are thinking about our future," Loga said.

He also defended his team selection for the COSAFA Cup tournament.

"Let me just say a few things about the COSAFA tournament, we lost five starters even before the tournament started. The day before leaving, Knox Mutizwa decided not to come. On the last training, Evans Rusike got injured.

"Kelvin Moyo, two days before decided not to come. Can you imagine our team with Kelvin Moyo as our central defender, with Knox and Rusike as strikers?

"And then we had problems with Perfect (Chikwende) and Godknows (Murwira), who tested positive to Covid-19 before we travelled," said Loga.

"Perfect is right winger, Godknows left full-back, Kelvin Moyo is a central-defender, Evans Rusike and Knox are strikers, I think that's the team that should be up there together with Ovidy (Karuru), Jimmy Dzingai, Washington Arubi and two or three young boys.

"But that team never came to COSAFA because five players decided they could not come because of this and that. Then in the middle of nowhere we just called five other young boys to give them exposure."

The ZIFA board is scheduled convene a meeting to analyse the team's performances before the World Cup qualifiers, which get underway in September.

Zimbabwe are set to face South Africa and Ethiopia in Group G, of the global qualifiers, which also include Ghana.

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