The Sunday Mail
HE was bullish and sounded more like someone who is looking beyond the expiry of his contract. Zimbabwe senior soccer team coach Zdravko “Loga” Logarusic’s contract is set to expire in January 2022, long before the World Cup qualifying marathon ends, but the Croat is speaking like a person who has already been assured of his future with the Warriors. So bullish is Loga that he believes his Warriors can take on any team in Africa and he feels he can compete against the continent’s best coaches. The 55-year-old coach, back in the country after an extended holiday in his native Croatia, spoke to our Sports Reporter LANGTON NYAKWENDA on a wide range of issues related to his mission with the country’s flagship team as he targets a maiden World Cup qualification for Zimbabwe. We share his thoughts below:
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Firstly, I wanted to come back to Harare a little earlier because I took only three weeks off after our last African Cup of Nations qualifier against Zambia in March, but the point is at that moment nothing was happening here in Zimbabwe.
There was no league, no national team football, so I stayed put in my country.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) has now started with the Chibuku Super Cup and I am back here working as usual.
Last week, I watched matches in Group One, including the big one between Dynamos and CAPS United. This weekend I will also watch these six teams whose coaches I have also taken the opportunity to meet, except the ZPC Kariba coach (Godfrey Tamirepi), whom I am yet to meet because he is back in Kariba.
Next week, I will be in Bulawayo to meet up with the other coaches there.
If I don’t meet them, then it will have to be a little later because we also have to prepare for the COSAFA Cup. Last year, I didn’t have the opportunity to select the players for the CHAN squad because when I came, corona also came.
There was no league — nothing!
We had to choose the players for CHAN, which I never watched. I only depended on my assistants to bring me the players, but now I have the opportunity to see for myself and choose players for myself.
I am not saying my assistants didn’t do a good job: I am saying I want to choose players I think can represent us properly.
How do you intend to do it this time?
Next year will be very difficult because in January we have the AFCON finals, then after that there will be qualification for the 2023 CHAN finals. These will start maybe March or April 2022 and we will be off-season here, so if we do not make the list right now, next year we will be in trouble.
January and February, there will be no league and that means I will not see the players in action; that is why I need this year to completely see the national league, choose players and have a list that will be ready. When they call us next year February or whatever date, we will be ready.
We will just call up the players and choose from the selected pool. But, I want to meet all the local coaches, if possible, to get some information about the players, to get recommendations on some players and exchange ideas.
We have to be together, we have the same problems and we have different ideas which we have to discuss about. The other thing is that the COSAFA tournament is coming but we don’t know the dates yet.
And we don’t know whether we are going straight into group stages or we will be given a bye.
We will see depending on information from COSAFA. I will go for playing more matches, but if we play in the knockout stage, then so be it.
For COSAFA tournament, we want to see players which we did not see a lot since I have been here. Some of them didn’t have enough minutes to prove themselves; some of them were not in the first squad.
That means we will not call our top players. We will not call (Marvelous) Nakamba, we will not call (Marshall) Munetsi, we will not call Khama (Billiat) or (Knowledge) Musona and other boys.
We will call some players who have the capacity to jump into the national squad for the World Cup qualifiers. What I want to say is that I am very satisfied with 15 or 16 players.
Already, we know these will be in the squad for the World Cup qualifiers.
But still, five or six slots are open; that is why we want to check the players in the local league and to check players at the COSAFA finals to see which ones we can pick. Obviously we will also give preference to some players who played at the 2021 CHAN finals.
But if the tournament is postponed due to the coronavirus, then that’s beyond our control. If the tournament goes ahead, it will be nice for us; if the tournament is called off, there is nothing we can do.
How will that impact on the World Cup qualifiers?
We will just adapt and focus on the local league and try to organise ourselves properly for the World Cup qualifiers.
That’s the basic idea. After that, we have two games in September, two games in October and another two games in November.
Immediately after that, the AFCON finals start and that means we are really under pressure. We have COSAFA, we have qualification for the World Cup, then the AFCON and then qualification for CHAN.
We have a lot of things to do in the next seven or eight months. Yes, we also have to think about the future because after this World Cup qualification and after the AFCON finals, some players will be reaching their twilight.
For sure, age will be catching up with them. That means we have to start to gradually refresh the squad a bit after the AFCON finals, not to make wholesome changes, but step by step we will give younger players more minutes.
This will widen our options when these guys who are 30 or 31 are no longer available.
What about the problem of lack of preparations?
The good thing is that our league is now up and running. But, it’s too early to make general assessments of the quality of play because players had not played for almost a year and a half.
The coaches were not on the bench for a year and a half, so they need a bit of time to adjust themselves. So I can’t say someone is playing fantastic football now because no one can play fantastic football because we have just started.
Maybe after two or so months we can then gauge. But for sure, Zimbabwe is full of talent.
We just need to make ourselves clear on the path we want to take. We need a proper plan and sound preparations.
But sometimes in international football you are not afforded much time to work with your players.
The other time I met some players at the airport first time, but that is international football for you. I have to use my experience, education and knowledge to combine in very short period and produce results.
I am not a coach who promises the moon like some other coaches in some other countries did – those who when they were appointed talked about CHAN, then went onto AFCON and the World Cup, then to the moon. I promised nothing, but now those coaches that were talking too much are not on the moon but they will be watching us, the Warriors, on TV when we take part at the AFCON finals.
Questions have been raised on Loga’s record, which is regarded as poor – seven games, one win, two draws and four losses, but when I needed to win, I won.
When I needed to draw, I drew.
There was a game like the one against Zambia which I had to check some players and for me the result was not important.
I am not living from Sunday to Sunday.
I have a clear picture of what I want to do and achieve in the long run.
We went to the CHAN finals without a running league, over a year without football and so what did people expect from that squad? You expected me to make a miracle and produce a winning team in 10 days?
But we did quite well against such a background. We lost 1-0 against the finalists Mali and we lost 1-0 against Cameroon, the semi-finalists.
Those were good results. We didn’t win, but in the circumstances, we performed well.
We are not talking about the coach’s record; look first at what we did right.
We qualified for the AFCON finals and we didn’t wait for the last game. That means the last game I had to use players who didn’t have much game time and rest those who had picked up yellow cards.
I must also save the players from injuries. Players have careers to protect so why risk them in a dead rubber?
People who understand football will understand me. We just have to go step by step.
We have to make cake with the ingredients that we have. There are the World Cup qualifiers coming around the corner and with no injuries, we should not be scared of anyone.
With the players we have, I see no reason why we should be afraid of anyone.
Our players can compete with anyone, no one can come and bully us.
Even Algeria, the African champions, didn’t they come here and score two goals but we came back and drew against them?
Who have played against Algeria in recent years and have come back from 2-0 down? We even dominated them in the second half of both legs.
I realised I can compete with any coach in Africa. I believe in myself and I believe in my players.
And the players are responding well.
I have been meeting some of them who are back from Europe. Munetsi and Musona were here at the ZIFA offices, even Tino (Kadewere) we spoke.
They even want to have dinner with me and talk football and the future.
I have got to meet Nakamba next week (this week).
We must be together, caucusing and mapping the way forward.
This is our country…we just don’t have to always look out for negative things.
This country gave me the opportunity to showcase my ability and I respect this country maybe more than some people here. But I also remain loyal to Croatia, my origin.
Remember, we play England in a Euro 2020 match on Sunday (today) and I am tipping my country to sail past the English.
