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Eddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
TO axe or not to axe is the question.
This is the biggest challenge facing ZIFA after football stakeholders raised their disapproval with Warriors coach, Zdravko Logarusic.
The Warriors were left on the brink of elimination, from the tournament, following the 0-2 defeat, at the hands of Namibia, on Sunday.
The Warriors dropped into fourth place on the five-team table, with two points from the draws, against Mozambique and Malawi, in the opening matches.
Loga’s men face guest nation Senegal, in their last Group B game, this afternoon at midday, hoping that a miracle would happen, to save their campaign.
But this is a tournament Zimbabwe have dominated, over the years, winning a record six titles. Logarusic saw another record being broken, after the team lost for the first time in open play, for the first time in 18 games, at the regional tournament.
This was a record that had stood for six years.
The Warriors’ performance at COSAFA Cup have also mirrored the poor performance at the CHAN finals where his Warriors broke records for the wrong reasons, after losing all the matches, in Cameroon.
Loga has been in charge of 11 games and his report card has been appalling, with one win, four draws and six defeats.
Apart from the results and the statistics, the Warriors under Loga have not shown sign of improvement in terms of style of play, tactics and even in terms of the way they are structured on the field of play.
This has also been made worse by the lack of leadership at the ZIFA office.
The two-week FIFA window came and passed recently, with Zimbabwe one of the few teams that failed to utilise the opportunity to arrange international friendlies.
Loga’s team selection, for the COSAFA Cup has been a joke, from day one.
Silas Songani, Rodwell Chinyengetere, Nqobizitha Ncube, Ishmael Wadi, Frank Makarati, Kelvin Madzongwe and Denver Mukamba are just a few of the players, who did well, in the COSAFA Cup, but were ignored by Loga.
Loga has dominated domestic football discussions, on social media, in the past 48 hours, with stakeholders unhappy with what they have seen.
“This Loga, am sure, is lacking somewhere. How can a professional have one win in 11 games?
“ZIFA, I think you have to explain what’s the meaning of this or Mr Loga himself (should) address the Warriors followers,” said a Twitter user by the name Tapson.
Zimbabwe are set to play two World Cup qualifiers, in September, against South Africa and Ethiopia.
Most of the contributors on social media felt Loga was not taking the Warriors anywhere.
“We are at AFCON finals, thanks to Joey Antipas’ win away to Zambia.
“We are not even dreaming of winning a single game in World Cup qualifiers. I am saying it one more time, ZIFA has an opportunity to avert embarrassment of national proportion here, by firing this under-achieving pretender now.
“Loga is not a coach,” said one of the contributors, by the name Masaisai, in response to The Herald’s story yesterday.
Namibia leads the group with six points, followed by Mozambique on four points.
Malawi are in third place with three points, while Zimbabwe are fourth with two points.
Malawi anchor the group with a single point, picked against Zimbabwe, in which the Flames blew away a 2-0 lead.
The top two teams in each of the groups advance to the semi-finals, which will be played on Friday.
“We have to fight, maybe some results can go our way and in the last game (against Senegal), maybe something will happen because we can still fight for second position.
“You never know in Africa, any team can beat any team and let’s see how things will go.
“Congratulations to Namibia and we have to regroup ourselves for the next game,” said Loga.
The organisers of the tournament will be hoping that the unrest, currently gripping South Africa, will not affect the smooth running of the tournament.
Parts of the country have been plunged into chaos, with looters taking advantage of the protests, against the incarceration of former President, Jacob Zuma.
Loga’s stats
Zim 0-0 Malawi (Friendly)
Algeria 3-1 Zim (Afcon Q)
Zim 2-2 Algeria (Afcon Q)
Cameroon 1-0 Zim (CHAN)
Burkina Faso 3-1 Zim (CHAN)
Zim 0-1 Mali (CHAN)
Botswana 0-1 Zim (Afcon Q)
Zim 0-2 Zambia (Afcon Q)
Zim 0-0 Mozambique (Cosafa)
Zim 2- 2 Malawi (Cosafa)
Zim 0-2 Namibia (Cosafa)
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