Coach Pagels blasts Zifa

Ricky Zililo in Chingola, Zambia
THE outgoing Zimbabwe senior men’s national team coach Klaus Dieter Pagels took a swipe at Zifa for failing to help him get deserving players to take part in the just-ended Cosafa Cup held in Zambia. Zimbabwe relinquished the regional title to Zambia after going down 0-2 in the final held at the state-of-the-art Ndola Stadium on Saturday.
The German coach said Zifa as the national body should have overruled the Premier Soccer League’s decision to allow him to take two players from each club for the Cosafa Cup.

However, that could have faced resistance since the tournament is not on the Fifa calendar.
“People always talk about team selection but for this tournament the problem is that I was only allowed to take two players from each club.
“There were better players that I should have selected but I couldn’t.

“Zifa needs to sit down with the PSL so that the national team coach is allowed to select players who rightfully deserve to be in the national team. This issue (restriction to two players from a club) only happens in Zimbabwe which is sad,” said Pagels.

The Zambian coach Herve Renard had told journalists after the final that he had scouted for talent all over Zambia from a pool of 600 players and played numerous friendly matches prior to the tournament.

Unlike the former Africa Cup of Nations champions who had properly prepared for the Cosafa Cup, the Zimbabwe national team only had two friendly matches against Malawi and Botswana.

Pagels’ team selection has always been topical. He failed to give a convincing response as to how he chooses his players.
One of the players whose selection was clouded in controversy is Monomotapa’s Nicholas Guyo who has not been a regular player at his club.
Guyo seemed overwhelmed by playing in the final and was unnecessarily losing possession.

One could not even tell what position Guyo was playing.
“When I select players, I look at their speed that is take off for the first 10 metres. I also look at the technical skill of a player and the fighting spirit. I can easily tell that the player has fighting spirit by looking straight in their eyes.

“Personally I think Guyo played well because he managed to shut down Zambia’s number 4 (Kondwani Mtonga). Guyo is a good player but as to why he is not playing at his club you can ask Monomotapa’s goalkeepers’ coach (Nkululeko Dhlamini) who is here,” said Pagels.

Efforts to get a comment from Dhlamini after the match were fruitless as the Warriors were running behind schedule to get back to their base in Kitwe.

Another player who appeared lost in the field during the final was Black Mambas’ Last Chibwiro.
Eyebrows were also raised as to how Harare City’s Maxwell Nyamupanedengu was given the nod ahead of seasoned Caps United goalkeeper Tafadzwa Dube who has been impressive for his club.

It did not make sense that Dube who has more senior national team caps had to understudy Nyamupanedengu.
Zambia scored their two goals in the final from set pieces and had Nyamupanedengu positioned himself well, he could have saved the shots from getting into the net.

Pagels has been poor with set pieces defending.
About his departure, Pagels said the future looks bright for Zimbabwe and urged the coach who will replace him to maintain the same style of play which he had introduced.

“I cannot tell what the future holds for Zimbabwe but I can tell you that for the country to move forward they need to maintain the passing game. Zifa must also make it easy for the coach to travel throughout the country so that he scouts for talent,” said Pagels who rarely left his Harare base.
What the German expatriate seemed to forget is that one cannot make experiments with the senior national team because results are needed at the expense of building a team like he said he was doing.

There were no Under-20 players in Pagels’ team with the average age being 27.
Meanwhile, the Warriors will turn their focus to the African Nations Championships (Chan) first round qualifier against Mauritius at the George V Stadium  on Sunday.