LOGA OUT: Worst record of any senior national team coach
By Sikhumbuzo Moyo
The Warriors fell to an all-time low on Tuesday afternoon when they lost by a solitary goal in a Fifa World Cup qualifier away to Ethiopia.
The Ethiopians were awarded a last-minute penalty after defender Alec Mudimu was adjudged to have handled inside the box and the hosts converted, leaving the Warriors as the only winless team in the group and without a goal after two rounds of matches in Group G.
Tuesday’s loss leaves the Warriors with just one win in 14 matches under Croatian coach Zdravko Logarusic. This is the worst record by any senior national team coach, local or expatriate.
Zimbabweans have watched in agony as the Warriors continue to rapidly decline since Loga took over last year, around the same time that the world was brought to its knees by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Loga took the Warriors to Chan and the Warriors lost all their three group matches.
Similar calamity befell the Warriors in the Cosafa in South Africa where they again lost all their three group games.
He defended his team selection, saying they had not gone to the Cosafa Cup to win the tournament, but to prepare the players for the World Cup qualifiers as well as Afcon finals next year.
Surprisingly the players he used in the Cosafa Cup in South Africa did not even feature in the World Cup qualifiers played so far.
The onus is now on Zifa to do the right thing and relieve the clueless Croat of his role as head coach immediately and get a local coach to prepare for their remaining four crucial games in the World Cup matches.
Their next assignment is a back-to-back clash with Ghana next month.
With Ghana being shocked 0-1 by South Africa on Sunday evening, Zimbabwe will need a technically and tactically sober coach, a characteristic which Loga lacks and is backed by poor results.
Loga is a complete failure and he’s been consistent at it despite the Warriors qualifying for next year’s Afcon finals.
While he can boast that he qualified the Warriors for the Afcon, it must be noted that previous interim coaches laid a solid foundation for qualification that it only took Loga one win to book their slot.
Zifa need to bring relief to soccer loving Zimbabweans by firing Loga.
The Zifa Technical and Development Committee must revise whatever recommendations it submitted to the national association’s executive committee that saw Loga keeping his job in the wake of the Warriors’ disastrous Cosafa Cup campaign that Loga presided over.
If Loga keeps his job, it means incompetence is acceptable at Zifa.
What more failure does Zifa want before firing this man who has embarrassed our national team?
It’s so bad that even the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary Nick Mangwana was astonished by Loga’s unending excuses that blame everyone else, but himself.
“You can’t just go around blaming everybody but yourself. Take responsibility and do the right thing. Baya!”
Mangwana tweeted yesterday in response to a story in which Loga blamed the referee for Warriors’ loss. The Chronicle
