Viva, Spain! (Euro 2008)

Man of the moment - Spain's goalkeeper Iker Casillas


Cute!

P.S. Not that I was particularly impressed with the quality of Spanish football today, but Casillas made the game!

*photo - Copyright@EMPICS, via Yahoo Sport (quarter final, Spain vs. Italy)

Reigning European champions Greece held 0:0 by Armenia in last friendly ahead of Euro 2008

Good news from football field. News headlines report that Reigning European champions Greece could not find the net as they finished their warm-up matches for Euro 2008 against Armenia on Sunday evening. It was the last friendly for Greece ahead of Euro-2008. A pretty dismal result for Greece (0:0). Not bad at all for Armenia.

Unfortunately, I did not watch the match, but reports vary in their assessment of the game. The AP mentions that The Greeks dominated for large spells of the game but rarely posed a threat to Armenia goalkeeper Gevorg Kasparov. IA Regnum considers the game as equal, or even with more advantages from the Armenian side.

Either Greeks are not in a proper form, or Armenians are in a good form, or both. Even though Armenia did not pass through to the final leg of Euro 2008, this sort of matches are important for keeping fit and give me a hope that in coming World Cup qualifying football matches, the first one to be against Turkey in Yerevan on 6 September we may well witness a good football. I really hope so and look forward to it. Draws with champions are not bad, but Armenian football team has to get into habit of winning too.

*source of photo - Goal.com

Lame excuse - "tiredness" to justify poor rank in Euro 2008 qualifying

That was unpleasant downfall of Armenian national football
team after the defeat at home 0:1 to Kazakhstan. Previously, Armenia beat Kazakhstan 2:1. This made our team finish Euro 2008 qualifying next to last (Azerbaijan finished last).

When asked by journalists, coach Vardan Minasyan 'explained' losing the game by "tiredness" of our players. A typical lame excuse to justify defeat. Our team schedule was not more stressful than that of most of the teams within the Euro 2008 qualifying.

After Ian Porterfield died, we do not have proper chief coach for our national team, and there is steady decline in quality and performance. It's not that they are particularly bad, no, but the impression is that there is no progress anymore, and there is a downward trend instead. Anticipations and excitements were high back then. We need new Ian Porterfield, and less politics in Armenian football.

*photo by Photolur (via A1+)

Naked saviour

Apparently, seeing naked Belgian fan on the field was too much of a distraction for Armenian football players, who were leading the game but completely lost it afterwards (3:0). Smart move, Belgium! ;)

Armenia vs Portugal Euro 2008: Draw which equals to Victory

Another great day for Armenian football!

I am extremely happy to witness continuous resurgence of Armenian football. Well done, guys! Congrats to all of us! It is delightful to see the kind of confidence and quality which was displayed by our national team against world class footballers. Do not be surprised if in time you read world media's shock of Armenia's draw or defeat like they do it now for current favourites. You never know with Armenia :)

Here are just some of the headlines which caught my eyes:

Goal.com
Qualifier Report: Poor Portugal Held By Animated Armenia
A great move from Cristiano Ronaldo saved Portuguese honour in Erevan as the visitors suffered an early goal and only harvested a meagre point from their away fixture. The result is a let-down for Scolari and his men and postpones Portugal's chances of making it through to Switzerland and Austria next year... A bad day for Portugal that delays the long-awaited classification for the Euro 2008 and leaves Coach Felipão stewing in his own juice.

Sky Sports
Cristiano Ronaldo partially saved Portugal's blushes in Armenia
Prior to kick-off and Portugal had hoped victory against Armenia would push them closer to Euro 2008 qualifying Group A leaders Poland, but a 1-1 draw on their travels will be deemed a hugely disappointing result. And it could have been so much worse, for on 12 minutes, Armenia had the temerity to take the lead courtesy of Robert Arzumanyan's surprise opener.

Sporting Life
Portugal's star-studded team could not overcome their eastern European counterparts in the second half as Armenia held on for their third surprise result in a row, having defeated Kazakhstan and Poland in the last set of fixtures.

AP
"The draw is a logical result for the match," Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said. "We definitely came here to win, but Armenia played quality soccer today."

"Today it was a beautiful evening for Armenian soccer," Armenia coach Ian Porterfield said.

In the meantime, as Arsineh pointed out in Life in Armenia, "It feels great to be Armenian today. That's all I have to say. Armenians from all around the world and Armenia itself filled the streets of Yerevan to celebrate together... drums and tamborines, even metal ashtrays were used as make-shift noise makers. Amazing! Even the seed stand guy was all smiles and chatty tonight."

UEFA’s cowardly, ‘politically correct’ decision: Euro 2008 Armenia vs Azerbaijan matches cancelled

Reuters just reported that UEFA decided to cancel two Euro 2008 Group A matches between Armenia and Azerbaijan, with both countries losing the six qualifying points available. As Reuters rightly pointed out, "Armenia wanted the games played on a normal home and away basis but Azerbaijan refused to play host to the Armenians and proposed a neutral ground for both encounters."

Why should Armenia suffer from Azerbaijan’s inability to follow UEFA rules? I wish there is a way for Armenia to protest this decision. UEFA is perfectly aware of Karabakh conflict and they either should have put Armenia and Azerbaijan in different groups from the beginning (regardless of the draw) or reinforce their rules, if no other compromise is possible.

But hey, we are living in increasingly ‘politically correct’ world…

Porterfield the miracle worker on and off pitch

He is the FA Cup hero who is battling cancer but managing to create history in Armenia

Independent

Simon Turnbull reports
Published: 10 June 2007

For all the countless words that were said and written about David Beckham's contribution for England in Tallinn on Wednesday night, the most uplifting story of rehabilitation on the international football stage was unfolding 1,580 miles away, beyond the other side of Russia. At the Republican Stadium in Yerevan, Ian Porterfield stood next to the home dug-out, urging and inspiring Armenia to the most famous victory in their football history - a 1-0 success against Poland, the leaders of Group A in the Euro 2008 qualifiers.

Today, Armenia's head coach undergoes six hours of chemo-therapy at the Saint Grigor Lusavorich Medical Centre in Yerevan, the country's capital. He is booked for another six-hour session tomorrow.

On 7 March Porterfield had an emergency operation to remove a cancerous tumour from his colon. "I'm still having treatment," he said on Friday, speaking from the Yerevan apartment he shares with his wife, Glenda. "I've got two chemotherapy sessions left, on Sunday and Monday. I'm trying to keep things low-key because I think I'm going to be OK. I'm going to get through this. Bobby Robson's had it three or four times and he's still kicking around."

Sir Bobby, in fact, has had cancer five times and is still alive and kicking at 73. Porterfield is 61, and he has survived a life-threatening scare once before.


Back in 1974 - the year after he scored the Wembley goal that caused one of the biggest upsets in FA Cup final history, securing Sunderland's 1-0 victory against Don Revie's mighty Leeds United - the gifted midfielder came perilously close to losing his life in a car crash. He suffered a badly fractured skull and a broken jaw. "I was very, very lucky to come out of it," he reflected.

The accident cost Porterfield an international playing career - he was on the brink of a Scotland call-up at the time - but he was back in training within two months and helped Sunderland to the Second Division title the following season. Thirty-three years later, his fighting spirit is shining through once again.

As a head coach, the Fifer has made his mark before. He happens to be the last man to replace Alex Ferguson in club management, at Aberdeen in 1986. He was also Chelsea's first manager in the Premier League and became a national hero in Zambia when guiding the African nation to within a goal of the 1994 World Cup, after the previous head coach and his playing squad had perished in a plane crash.

Armenia is Porterfield's fifth overseas posting as a national coach. Since August last year, the man who won the cup for Sunderland has been nurturing the international underdogs from the smallest of the former Soviet republics - a country recovering from the devastation of genocide, earthquakes and mass migration. In the most trying of personal circumstances, he has managed to gain international respectability for Armenia.

In the European Champion-ship qualifiers, there was a draw against Roy Hodgson's Finland and unlucky one-goal defeats against the Finns, Belgium and Poland before the heroics of the last eight days. With Porterfield back at pitchside and half-a-dozen first-choice players unavailable, Armenia won 2-1 in Kazakhstan a week yesterday and then beat Leo Beenhakker's Poles 1-0 in Yerevan on Wednesday, thanks to a second-half free-kick from a veteran striker called Hamlet Mkhitaryan.

"This is history for Armenia," Porterfield said. "They have never ever won two games in a row. They've beaten teams like Andorra but never a big team like Poland before.

"It was incredible in the stadium. We were playing a team who lost their first qualifying game but then won their next six matches. Poland have got some great players. They're an outstanding team. And as the game went on, Armenia got better and better and better. We were far, far the better team.

"We scored a wonderful free-kick. Hamlet, the guy who scored, is 33. He was quite magnificent. So were the rest of the team. We've played some really good football in the qualifiers but we've not played as winners - until now.

"I changed the mindset. I sat the players down and explained what they had to do to win games. Give them credit: they were inspirational against Kazakhstan and against Poland.

"It's wonderful for the people here. The flags are out in the street. The president came to see me. Och, it's lifted this country so much. It's just what this country needs.

"And I have to say the people here have been marvellous to me. The football federation have been tremendous. They've given me the best medical stuff you can buy. They're not shirking anything, no matter what the cost."

As well they might. As the good people of Sunderland would testify, you can't put a price on Ian Porterfield, the worker of football miracles.

*Source of pictures: AP (Armenia's coach Ian Porterfield celebrates his team's win against Poland ) and BBC (Porterfield scored an unstoppable volley to secure Sunderland win against Leeds 1:0, FA Cup final, 1973)

At last... Now we can celebrate Armenia's football victories!

Let's hope we evidenced Armenia's football revival

2 victories in 4 days!

2 June: Kazakhstan 1 Armenia 2

6 June: Armenia 1 Poland 0



Man of the match:
Hamlet Mkhitaryan

(picture via AOL Sport)

Armenia's coach Ian Porterfield celebrates his team's win against Poland [Group A leaders] in a Euro 2008 Group A qualifying match in Yerevan, Armenia, 6 June 2007 (AP picture, via Yahoo Sport).

"It is a great day for Armenian football," said the 61-year-old former Aberdeen and Chelsea manager Ian Porterfield, recovering after his battle with bowel cancer.
"The whole team played well but I want to say special thanks to goalscorer Hamlet Mkhitaryan and goalkeeper Gevorg Kasparov. They deserve special praise."

Hamlet Mkhitaryan, centre, plays the ball during Euro 2008 qualifying match between Armenia and Poland in Yerevan (AP, via Yahoo Sport).

Hamlet Mkhitaryan fired a free kick into the top corner beyond Poland's goalkeeper Artur Boruc in the 66th minute to give the home team their second win in seven games.

Aleksander Tadevosyan, left, Artur Voskanyan, background, and Poland's Wojciech Lobodzinski, right, vie for the ball (AP, via Yahoo Sport).

Aghvan Mkrtchyan, right, and Poland's Wojciech Lobodzinski, left, play the ball (AP, via Yahoo Sport).


Videos from the match (via Armsoccer™ and Armenian H1 TV Channel)

a) brief version - goal and moment of victory



b) intro - beginning of the game and 1st half highlights



c) victory - 2nd half highlights