Football!
The big news to report from here was the football match last night. We were to play against Poland in European championship qualifiers. Now, I am absolutely not a sporty guy at all, I never follow any of the matches or scores or whatever in anything. I do, however, like to go to the stadium during a match, just to be a part of that atmosphere.
It's mostly men, stinky with cigarettes and chewing sunflower seeds. There's a great deal of shouting and cursing, and the best part is when a player falls and everybody extends one or both arms in righteous indignation. I love to imitate, and add an "Ara!" for good effect. Often there are moments when the crowd immediately stands (someone is near scoring a goal, the referee made a bad choice regarding our guy, a feeble attempt at a Mexican wave...). It's just such an enthralling and exhilarating time!
Add to that the fact that I went with a big bunch of old and new friends, aaaand - here comes the big part - we won! We beat the Poles 1:0. It was incredible! The crowd went completely wild, everyone's throat got hoarse shouting "Ha-ya-STAN" and "Ha-yeeeeer". People filled the central streets, spilling out of the stadium after the match, and the celebrations continued, spirits remain nice and high...
Poland is top in their group, and beating them, a world-class team without doubt, was a big deal. Now we have to see how we fare in certain other matches with certain other members of that group. One in particular. I wonder if we'll be able to attend the Armenia-Azerbaijan match after all...?
It's mostly men, stinky with cigarettes and chewing sunflower seeds. There's a great deal of shouting and cursing, and the best part is when a player falls and everybody extends one or both arms in righteous indignation. I love to imitate, and add an "Ara!" for good effect. Often there are moments when the crowd immediately stands (someone is near scoring a goal, the referee made a bad choice regarding our guy, a feeble attempt at a Mexican wave...). It's just such an enthralling and exhilarating time!
Add to that the fact that I went with a big bunch of old and new friends, aaaand - here comes the big part - we won! We beat the Poles 1:0. It was incredible! The crowd went completely wild, everyone's throat got hoarse shouting "Ha-ya-STAN" and "Ha-yeeeeer". People filled the central streets, spilling out of the stadium after the match, and the celebrations continued, spirits remain nice and high...
Poland is top in their group, and beating them, a world-class team without doubt, was a big deal. Now we have to see how we fare in certain other matches with certain other members of that group. One in particular. I wonder if we'll be able to attend the Armenia-Azerbaijan match after all...?
posted by Nareg at 10:58 AM
7 Comments:
OLÉ OLÉ OLÉ OLÉ... HAYER... HAYER... OLÉ OLÉ OLÉ OLÉ... HAYER... HAYER... OLÉ OLÉ OLÉ OLÉ... HAYER... HAYER... OLÉ OLÉ OLÉ OLÉ... HAYER... HAYER... OLÉ OLÉ OLÉ OLÉ... HAYER... HAYER...
poland arent a world class team by any stretch of the imagination, they are however a solid team.
Lets hope this win wont hide the fact that the armenian squad need to improve dramatically if it is to reclaim its historic claim to being a decent footballing nation.
More money and investment is needed into the sport from the government, and more support from the grassroots, the only real way to support long term improvement of football in a country.
I'd urge everyone to get tickets to the game on 22nd August, and urge the team on to another win. A boo, whistle, curse everytime portugal get the ball, and any shout of support for our lads.
as the english say, "get into them" (more or less)
Support your local team.
Kamo,
Armenia's population is barely 3 million, and they cannot afford a great team. Poland is 40 million people strong... and they're in the EU. I just want to put a bit of perspective on the whole thing, and say that in team sports at least, Armenia is at a massive disadvantage to the "big boys".
True Raffi, but I would argue....3 million Armenians, 40 million poles....of which most seem to be in Britain anyway :) probably leaving about 3 million left in poland.....!
We have to thank Ian Porterfield for this. He has done wonders for many teams before and has a loyal following here in the UK. It's also great that he knows how much Armenia needs wins like this for its morale
this one time ill have to disagree with you Raffi. Croatia with a population of 4.5 million has consistently been in the top 10 and 20 of FIFA ranking for the past several years and China and India with over 1 billion have not hit top 50. In any case i believe if Armenian's economy continues to improve, it's population stops smoking and have healthy diets, and concentrate on sports, there is no reason we should not be able to hit top 10 and 20.
Thanks to Mr Portfield who changed the team into having a winning attitude. Bless him, considering only this week he finished his chemo treatment for his cancer.
Our boys were brilliant - abris!
Go to www.yerevanunited.com to send the National Team a Hero Email.
Great job on winning two games in a row. However, let's not get carried over with ourselves. Armenia's team and its players still have a long way to go to become a consistent winning team on the world stage. One thing i would highly recommend Mr Porterfield to do while he maintains his great job of coaching, is to put Armenia's players on a serious weight training program. For the most part our team's players lack the physical attributes that it takes to become a world class player. One only needs to look at high quickly US football developed in the past 15 years and a lot of it has to do with the physical ability of the players and serious weight training US players go through in America. If each one of Armenia’s players puts on about 5-15 pounds of muscle, the whole team will become a lot better and get pushed around a lot less while keeping control of the ball longer. Weight training improves ablity in all sports and Football is no different. Let’s get serious!
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