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Pyunik-Mika 4-0

Another, eighteenth, national championship in soccer ended this month. It ended without surprises – FC Pyunik representing capital Yerevan, with 65 points in 28 games, won the title for the ninth time in a row. FC Mika finished second (53 points) and FC Ulis took the third place. Last season’s runner-up Ararat, a legendary team for generations of Armenian fans, is leaving the top division to give way to Impulse from Dilijan, a newcomer in the top flight’s 2010 season. The top scorer in the 2009 Armenian premier league is Artur Kocharyan from Ulis (15 goals). Boti Demel from Mika and Arsen Avetisyan from FC Gandzasar Kapan, meanwhile, scored 14 goals each.

The season that formally ended on Sunday was distinguished from the previous ones perhaps by two circumstances – for the first time in the history of Armenian soccer a team of foreign referees (Italians) officiated at the final of the Cup tournament and secondly, Ararat that showed poor performance through most of the season was relegated to the lower class thus creating the “brightest” impression of the 2009 championship.

A press conference attended by FC Pyunik President Karlen Harutyunyan, head coach Vardan Minasyan and skipper Sargis Hovsepyan took place at Hotel Regina early this week. Pyunik’s coach positively evaluated the results of the season, pointing out the fact that it was young players who helped Pyunik win another title.

However, he said, it is time the team gave a thought to a more successful performance at the international arena. (No Armenian club has yet progressed to late stages of European cup tournaments). For this purpose, Pyunik plans a major recruitment ahead of the next season, with new players to be invited from among Armenian national team players or foreigners with a class no lower than that of Markos Pizzelli, a naturalized Brazilian who is now with Pyunik on a three-year contract.

Speaking about strengthening the squad, Harutyunyan did not exclude the return of Armenia veteran goalkeeper Roman Berezovsky, now playing with Khimki Moscow, if the latter fails to find a proper club abroad. Khimki are now bottom in the Russian premier league and will be relegated at the end of the season. Midfielder Levon Pachajyan, who currently plays in the Iranian championship, is also expected to return.

And what about the national team? The 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying round was marked by the emergency of a new term, soccer diplomacy, applied to two political archrivals Armenia and Turkey. There was, indeed, much stir around the two matches between the two teams (in Yerevan and Bursa). As for the performance of the team, it was most of the time disappointing. It stood out only once, in the home game against Belgium in which Armenia registered the only victory in the qualifying campaign 2-1. There were some signs of mature play also in the home game against European champions Spain (in which Armenia was defeated 1-2). In all the rest matches (including the draw against Estonia 2-2 in March) the impression was that players did not know what to do with the ball, how to defend, how to switch from defense to attack, how to create goal scoring chances and, most importantly, convert them.

The Armenian national team that appeared to have found their form under Scottish tactician Ian Porterfield in 2007 by scoring a number of memorable victories and staging quite a few outstanding performances has not come round after the death of the coach yet. Dane Jan Poulsen, who succeeded Porterfield at the helm of the Armenian team, made nothing special that could be remembered.

What the Armenian team needs now ahead of the new qualifying campaign (beginning next fall) is new players and a thinking coach, rather than a visiting coach, of whom Armenia has seen quite a few in the past years. The draw for the Euro-2012 qualifying rounds is expected in January. Time will now show whether the new 2010 season will become another season of fan disappointment or, on the contrary, will bring a new hope for the underperforming team and its fans.