Hope Chizuzu, Sport
It matters little now that Warriors coach Zdravko Logarusic can insult our intelligence and wisdom to say he was responsible for the qualification to Cameroon 2021 next January.
We know he was not. We also know Warriors completed the qualification for AFCON without winning a single match at home.
We have not forgotten that the Croat won only one game in eight, against, of all teams, Botswana.
He also thought we are foolish enough to believe that he rested some players in the last match against Zambia, which lost 2-0 and dubbed the match a dead rubber, yet we have World Cup qualifiers in June and he will not get any windows to play friendlies with most internationals available.
There is never a dead rubber in world football with records and ranking points at stake, more so against eternal rivals Zambia.
Only a mad man can say and believe that. We are not mad – 16 million people including Catholic priests can’t be all mad. No.
African champions fielded their strongest side in dispatching Botswana 5-0 and they were qualified with more than two matches to spare.
Who had a better excuse to rest players, Djamel Belmadi, the Algerian coach or Loga?
And Loga is behaving like he pulled rabbits out of the fire. In four matches against Algeria (home and away), Botswana (away) and Zambia (home) his harvest was worth four points out of a possible 12.
In just two matches Joey Antipas got the same points – Zambia (away) and Botswana (home).
And still, this Loga thinks he is the biggest thing to happen to Zimbabwean football with the laughable statistic thrown around by PR apparatchiks that he is the first foreigner to take Zimbabwe to AFCON.
Really? Stuff of jokes for real. This is just broad day witchcraft exercised in a nunnery.
Well, this Loga, in his euphoria, forgot that the Afcon is in January next year, thanks to COVID-19 – a long 10 months away.
But we have an immediate task of qualifying for Qatar 2022……and he “blue ticks and blocks players “as if he manufactures some from his Avenues lodgings…..…. Hahahahahaha, these comedians, brought by Wilson Mutekede (Mwari ave naye) better change their narrative. It is not fun anymore.
Even our own Ndumiso “Gumz” Gumede is well capable of better jokes than this, we all know that.
Well, this is the script, the World Cup qualifiers start with a home game against South Africa, at the moment coach-less, after Molefi Ntseki was shown the exit door post AFCON.
To imagine that Mzansi failed to qualify for AFCON with 10 points, and they sacked coach and Zimbabwe, we have a coach on eight points, four of which earned by another coach and he is beating his chest like a sumo wrestler. Of course, he looks like one, albeit a poor imitation of it.
Alarm bells are loud but as usual, we ignore that until the house is on fire. Really?
Here are the hard facts. We play South Africa at home between June 5-8, before facing Ethiopia (away) the week of 11 to 14 June, meaning we play two matches in a week.
So, by the end of June, we may be out of the World Cup 2022 at the rate Loga wins and loses matches.
His record reads: Eight matches, only one win, two draws and five loses.
When the qualifiers for Qatar 2022 resumes in September, after a two months break, we have Ghana back to back scheduled for 1-4 September (away) and 5-7 September we receive Ghana here before we travel to South Africa between 6-9 October.
Zimbabwe will finish the quest for Qatar 2022 against Ethiopia between 10-12 October. This is the first World Cup to be hosted in the Gulf region and will be played from Nov 26 – December 16 because of the heat.
Group G Qatar 2022 fixtures:
Zimbabwe vs South Africa (5-8 June)
Ethiopia vs Zimbabwe (11-14 June)
Ghana vs Zimbabwe (1-4 September)
Zimbabwe vs Ghana (5-7 September)
South Africa vs Zimbabwe (6-9 October)
- @Hope.Chizuzu (WHATSAPP +263715001628)
