Zimbabwe are in danger of being eliminated from the African nations cup championship at a very early stage should they lose to Mali in the next group match. Zimbabwe have taken just two points from the matches against Uganda and Burkina Faso. This is the tournament held in Africa in order to give the locally placed players an opportunity to win trophies. Ian Gorowa, who has previously coached the likes of Ajax Cape Town, says that he is worried about the poor attacking display shown by his team in this tournament.

Scoring goals has been a major problem for the team, although their form has been slowly improving in the last few months. Even though they dominated the last two matches, they have failed to score. Ahead of the match with Morocco, Gorowa said that this will be a must win game for the Zimbabwe national team if they are to progress to the latter stages of the competition. He said that the 0-0 draw with Uganda was very disappointing, but he is hoping that his attack finds form at just the right stage in the tournament.

Zimbabwe have been looking good in recent months as they have not suffered a defeat since the 2-0 loss to Zambia back in July of last year.

“I have to put it lightly how I am feeling about it [the 0-0 loss to Uganda]. It was a must-win game, we also created chances, if we didn’t then I would be worried. We had to win though, and now fate is not in our hands because you never know. We have to compete and they have to score goals, we haven’t scored any in this tournament, so it’s a bit of a worry. We wanted to correct the mistakes we had against Morocco,” Gorowa said.

Zimbabwe head coach Ian Gorowa has said that the state of the artificial pitch at the Rufaro Stadium could cause serious injuries to his players and he has requested to the football Federation that the national team matches should be played at the Barbourfields Stadium. Gorowa has overseen three matches for the Zimbabwe national team. They have played against the likes of Mauritius, Mozambique, and Zambia in the three matches since he has taken over. However, all the matches have finished in a draw, which has increased the pressure on the manager.

Gorowa has now stated that he does not want the 2015 Afcon qualifying matches to take place at the Rufaro Stadium, but instead at the Barbourfields Stadium. He has explained in an interview that the artificial pitch used at the former is capable of causing players injury. He is also lost at the fact that Zimbabwe continue to play their matches at Harare despite the fact that they have several good stadiums across the country. He has said that the football Federation should consider using other cities as host for the national team matches.

“The state of Rufaro is not friendly to players, but rather an injury risk. I wonder why we are always stuck in Harare when we have other stadiums around the country. I would really love that we play our Afcon qualifying matches at Barbourfields and I have already made that request. We would have easily played at the National Sports Stadium, but the problem is we have not been getting good results there. This means that we should not leave out other cities in the hosting of national team games,” Gorowa said.

A number of teams have declined the opportunity to play at the Rufaro Stadium in recent times citing the problems with the pitch.

Zimbabwe and Mozambique will be taking on each other in a high-profile match that more or less has no meaning, but it will be extremely important for both teams due to various reasons. Even though they cannot qualify for the World Cup 2014, this match will be of greater significance in the future of the two teams. New Zimbabwe manager Ian Gorowa has said that he has challenged his players to get a victory from this match. Both teams are separated only by a few points in the group G. Mozambique have two points on board and are third in the table.

Zimbabwe, meanwhile, have just only one point from the five matches. Egypt have taken qualification from this group after winning the group, while Guinea have come second. Klaus Dieter Pagels did a decent job of helping Zimbabwe stay afloat, but he was unable to prevent them from losing ground on the World Cup qualifying group. Hence, Gorowa was given a monumental task took over the job as the national team manager a few months ago. Even though Gorowa will be unable to change the fact that Zimbabwe cannot be at the 2014 World Cup, he is hoping to finish the qualification campaign with at least a victory.

“To be honest we have not won in this group and I do not want to take responsibility for something when I was not in charge. In this game we have to play for our pride as Zimbabweans and have to win at home, which is very important. Also, we have to look at the performance of some of the players whom we have not used as a technical team and we need to access them so I think it’s important to get both results and performance,” said Gorowa ahead of the match with Mozambique.

Klaus Dieter Pagels is fast approaching 12 months into his job as the Zimbabwe national team manager. He was appointed in his role as the national team manager back in November 2012. Now, he has revealed that talks have been ongoing with the Zimbabwe president over the possibility of signing a new extension. Zifa president Cuthbert Dube has indicated that there is a possibility that Pagels will sign a new contract. Pagels’ contract with the national team runs out at the end of the month. This uncertain future may be detrimental to the hopes of Zimbabwe doing well in the next few tournaments.

Pagels also revealed that he has signed a six-month contract with a school in Germany and he would be returning to his native country in order to start work soon. Pagels has been trying to revolutionise Zimbabwe by bringing in players who are already playing in Europe. This has had mixed results in the last few months. Recent successes in friendly matches against the likes of Malawi and Lesotho have been overshadowed by disappointments against the likes of Zambia and Egypt in key matches. Zimbabwe are currently bottom of the World Cup qualifying group after having taken just one point from the five matches.

“We are still talking. We discussed the issue with Zifa this week, but we didn’t finalise so I cannot say it’s all over. I might stay longer or I might not. I am going to the Cosafa tournament right now and I might also be going to Mauritius for the African Cup of Nations Championships (CHAN) tournament. I signed a six-month contract and after the CHAN match, there is just the 2014 World Cup qualifier against Mozambique. My contract with the school will also be coming to an end so I can’t say much because we are still talking with Zifa,” said Pagels.