FIFA has highly praised the fantastic work of Ian Gorowa, the Coach of Warriors, during the Final of African National Championship. Overtaking Klaus Dieter Pagel, Gorowa, directed the Zimbabwe National Football Team, the Warriors to the semi final rounds of CHAN. During the 3rd match off, the warriors lost to the Nigerians while the team made into the top hundred football playing counties according to FIFA special ratings. This progress under the new coach Gorowa was acknowledged yesterday by FIFA as they specifically devoted a part of fifa.com to the National Football Team of Zimbabwe.

Ian Gorowa was asked to take up the task of coaching the Warriors by the Zimbabwe Football Association; post Klaus Dieter Pagel quit his post last summer. Since then there has been no looking back on the part of the forty two year old ex- international football player, who has led the National Zimbabwe Football team to victory time and again.

FIFA noted that the warriors have been gradually climbing the ratings of the FIFA Coca Cola World Football Ranking by 5 spots, now making them 27th best in Africa and 100th best in world. This has been the team’s best performance since Nov 2012.

Quite a number of reputed football clubs of South Africa noted the progress of the Warriors during the CHAN finals, said FIFA. Kuda Mahachi is expected to play with Mamelodi Sundowns while How Mine’s Simba Sithole has been linked up with Ajax Cape Town. As SuperSport is eyeing George Chigova, the ace Goalkeeper, Patson Jaure, the team’s skipper is being tracked by Orlando Pirates.

The opening matches against Uganda and Morocco were drawn by the Warriors while they outdid Burkina Faso hence proceeding into the quarter finale.  Gorowa showcased his happiness on the team’s performance but assured a lot is yet more to come.

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.

Zimbabwe national team manager Dieter Kalus Pagels has hailed the Cosafa Castle Cup, which makes certain after a three-year hiatus, by saying that it will be a huge help to him in his efforts to rebuild the national team. Cosafa Castle Cup will be held in Zambia in the first two weeks of July. The national team was recently disbanded by Zifa. Pagels has said that this tournament is extremely essential if he is to complete the rebuilding work of the team. He has said that Zimbabwe should come up with a strong side in the near future.

Pagels has also revealed that he will be selecting only local-based players for this tournament, while also explaining his philosophy of having two teams that are capable of playing in two different tournaments. Pagels has said that the team with European based players will be challenging for the FIFA World Cup spot, while the locally-based players will be challenging for tournaments like the Cosafa Castle Cup that will be held locally. This tournament includes a total of 14 teams with Zimbabwe amongst the top teams along with the likes of South Africa and Zambia.

Zimbabwe come into the tournament on the back of a poor run of form, which has seen them lose three of the last five matches.

“It’s a good tournament and we hope to use the opportunity to look at other players that we have. I am sure this Cosafa tournament is for locally best players only. Normally, we would need to have two teams; one for the Cosafa and CHAN tournaments and the other for the World Cup and Africa Nations Cup competitions,” said Zimbabwe’s national team manager Pagels. Before the start of the tournament, Zimbabwe will have matches against the likes of Egypt and Guinea in the World Cup qualifying.

Zimbabwe national team manager Claus Dieter Pagels has said that he and the team will be giving their best in the World Cup qualifying stage despite the fact that they are unlikely to qualify. Ahead of the match with Egypt, Zimbabwe will be looking to qualify for the World Cup. However, they are in the last position of the group G after having played just three matches. Only the top team qualifies for the World Cup automatically. The top place is currently occupied by Egypt, who are a mammoth eight points ahead of them in the table. Still, Pagels reckons that his team will be giving their 100% in the matches.

Pagels was appointed as the Zimbabwe national team manager after the team failed to qualify for the 2013 African cup of nations. However, he knew at the time of taking the job that qualifying for the World Cup is going to be extremely tough. It has proven to be the case, as Zimbabwe have just one point to show in the three matches they have played. Ahead of the match, Pagels has said that he has seen the Egyptian team play in the last few matches, and he has identified certain areas to target in the opposition.

“I know they are a very strong team and that we are facing a tough mission in Alexandria. I watched their recent friendly games and know they are a very good team despite the fact that they lost in some of the recent matches. I also watched some DVD’s of their old games and know well what awaits us on Tuesday. I asked Zimbabwe Football Association to arrange some friendly games for us, and to leave for Egypt early but the financial situation couldn’t sustain that,” said Pagels ahead of the Egypt match.

The Zimbabwean national team manager Klaus Dieter Pagels has said that he is ready for his next test as the manager of Zimbabwe. Under the management of Pagels, Zimbabwe managed to register a 2-1 win over Botswana in a friendly match. Zimbabwe were coming into the match at the back of an indifferent form, which has seen them lose a couple of matches. However, Pagels has started his regime in the best possible manner after guiding the team to a victory. The next match for Zimbabwe will be World Cup qualifying encounter against one of the best teams in Africa – Egypt.

The match will be taking place in the month of March, and Pagels has said that he is ready to take on the Warriors test. Pagels tried to make several changes to the team by using a number of European-based players in the match. The tactic paid off quite well for the manager after his players were able to utilise their experience from playing regular European football into the match. Pagels has said that the players have had only two days of training, but they have been showing positive signs of gelling quite soon. Aside from the victory, the manager has said that he was pleased with the performance of his players.

“We worked well with the players. You know some of the players came from Europe, others South Africa, but we had two days training and it went well. They are young and good players. There were a few experienced ones, but most are young ones with a great future. So far so good. We had two days of training and then the game, so I think the more games we play the more the team will gel. Oh yes. It wasn’t about the win but the performance. The win was a bonus,” said Pagels.

The interim manager of the Zimbabwe National team, Klaus-Dieter Pagels has said that he will be fielding a team that is full of European experience for the upcoming friendly against Malawi. He has said that he has been doing a lot of research over the Zimbabwe players playing in European countries. He has been consistently monitoring them, and he intends to use them in the upcoming friendly matches. The previous Zimbabwe manager was criticised for not utilising the players playing abroad. Pagels intends to correct it under his regime and hope that the form of the national team improves.

Zimbabwe come into the encounter against Egypt in March having won just two of the last six encounters. As a result, that is a lot of pressure on the manager to produce the results. Pagels has said that he will not be including every player who is playing abroad, but only those who are capable of representing the national team. The African nations have been able to achieve a lot international football over the last decade due to the presence of several European-based players in the squad. Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Cameroon have been great examples of national teams being able to take advantage of the presence of popular African’s in major leagues.

“My philosophy needs European-based players as the backbone of the team. I was in Germany recently where I contacted my friends all over Europe who gave me a lot of information on all Zimbabweans playing in Europe. I also researched on the internet, so let me proudly say that I am now well-informed. At the moment I am not at liberty to name the players, but my ideal team is already there. The challenge here is to build a new team. We must have a good mix of European-based with the best playing locally, ” said Pagels.