Warriors Coach Zdravko Logarusic remains positive with warriors team despite his recent loss at COSAFA Cup tournament where warriors were eliminated in group stages.
Loga’s side were knocked out of the tournament and they failed to progress for the next round.
The Croatian coach is also experiencing a bumpy ride in his tenure after seeing his team win only one game in 12 starts and losing seven, overall.
Meanwhile, the 55-year-old coach has been under spotlight lately after he hit a new low at the COSAFA Cup in South Africa. However, he said his contract is clear he should not be judged by anything apart from the AFCON and World Cup qualifying campaigns.
Loga insists that he was mandated by ZIFA to qualify for the 2021 AFCON finals and the 2022 World Cup and has not failed in that regard.
“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.
Although he claim to bring glory, 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.
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.
In the meantime the ZIFA board is scheduled to convene a meeting to analyse the team’s performances before the World Cup qualifiers, which get underway in September.
Zimbabwe is set to face South Africa and Ethiopia in Group G, of the global qualifiers, which also include Ghana.
