Afcon delay a blessing in disguise: Logarusic

WARRIORS coach Zdravko Logarusic is happy that the Confederations of African Football (Caf) postponed the Africa Cup of Nations finals from next year January to 2022 as that would give his players time to regain fitness.

Caf was forced to suspend the Afcon qualifiers in March following the coronavirus outbreak and was hoping to resume in September.

However, the continental football governing body on Tuesday announced that it had further postponed the qualifiers as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to spike in most African countries.

Consequently, the Afcon finals, which were set for January next year, were pushed forward by 12 months to 2022.

Logarusic, who has not taken charge of the Warriors in a competitive match since penning a two-year contract in January to coach the national men’s football team, is happy with the decision to postpone the games.

“Personally, I think it’s better that the Afcon games have been delayed because that will give the players enough time to get fit and pick the right form,” Logarusic told NewsDay Weekender Sport yesterday.

“If we had played in September, it was going to be difficult because the players were coming from a long break. We wouldn’t have known their condition and their form, so it’s good that we have been given a bit more time to assess the players and make a decision based on their form.”

Most of the Warriors players scattered around the globe had gone for over three months without kicking a ball in a competitive match due to lockdown restrictions imposed by many countries to slow down the spread of the killer pandemic.

While some have started to play again as countries begin to ease their lockdown restrictions, Logarusic believes that the Afcon round of qualifiers, which were due in two months’ time, had come too early.

“Some of the players might have put on some weight and some have lost it. Some will need time to settle at their new clubs and have a feel of their new environment, so now there is time for them to adapt and pick up form and try to reach the levels they were on before coronavirus or even better,” he said.

Key Warriors players that have found new bases include star striker Tino Kadewere, who signed for French Ligue 1 giants Lyon from Ligue 2 club Le Havre, as well as Knowledge Musona, who extended his loan deal with KAS Eupen by another season.

With no football action in the country since March when Zimbabwe went into lockdown, Logarusic retreated to his home country Croatia a fortnight ago.

He said he was ready to come back to Harare as soon as the government lifts restrictions on local football in the country.

The 54-year-old will have to prepare a squad of locally-based players to compete at the African Nations Champions (Chan) finals, which will be played in January next year.

The tournament was initially pencilled for April this year, but was postponed due to the coronavirus.

There were hopes that the Warriors would return to action in September for the start of the 2022 Wold Cup qualifying campaign, but those games have also been pushed back after Fifa last week scrapped the international break for national teams in Africa, Asia, Oceania and North America for that month.

While the October-November international break remains open for national team matches, there is no guarantee that it will be any safer to play than September.

“The Afcon games were postponed, but we still don’t know about the games for the World Cup qualifiers and the Chan is not far away in January, so these few months will pass quickly. We will have to organise ourselves for Chan,” Logarusic said.

The Croat had already called his squad into camp for preparations when the tournament was called off.

“The Chan tournament is important for us. We have some idea about the preparation for the Chan tournament and we will have to carry on from where we left the last time. We had 23 players in camp and in my opinion, we can make some changes and put a very good squad for the tournament. We are sure of about 14 or 15 players, but I think some places are open and we can assess some other players for the team. We have time on our side to select other players who can make our Chan squad stronger,” he said.

“I’m waiting to hear from the government and as soon as they give us the greenlight, I’m coming to Zimbabwe and start preparing. Hopefully by August, I would be back. Remember, football in Zimbabwe is not about the national team only, but we have to start proper development from the Under-15, Under-17 and the Under-20. We have to make some structures in those age groups. Football is not about the players in the field. There is also some office work that needs to be done to put the structures. Proper structures for the junior teams will be very important for the development of football in Zimbabwe. This is the right time to do the structures for the youths because we don’t have any pressure.”