A good day for Armenian football. The national team today beat Poland in the Euro 2008 qualifier match, making them now 3rd from bottom (Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan follow respectively). The win was surprising due to Poland’s strong side, currently first in the group.

The stadium was pretty much full, and I really do think this makes a huge difference to the morale of the players. Ian Porterfield, the Armenian national coach , kept stressing the importance of supporters to the performance of players, something I have never really heard before in Armenia. I remember numerous international matches with a half empty stadium, it seems this may be changing.

I think a win like this may well prompt a lot of young people to get into the habit of supporting our national team and following them to their matches. I hope this will happen, and that we can expect a further bout of good results.

Interestingly, Armenia and Azerbaijan’s match is due to take place soon. So far the final location hasn’t been confirmed, but it is not expected matches will take place in Yerevan or Baku due to safety concerned, despite both sides stating they would host the event.

Gibrahayer Saturday 20 May, 2006 - Armenia’s rising tennis star 15 year old Zaruhi Harutyunyan won her first ITF title by defeating South Africa’s number one player Bianca Swanepoel in the singles of the international world ranking tournament that concluded today at the Enka Sports Club in Bolis.
In a three-set nail-biting final that was watched by local tennis fans and cheering Bolsahays, Harutyunyan found herself losing 3-1 and 15-40 in the final set before regrouping and fighting back to clinch the set, the match and the championship, 5-7,
6-2, 6-4.
more…

You think that I would learn to keep my mouth shut on this topic, but I had to share: We got a great comment today with more info on Armenian hockey AND a link to a page that included the hockey team’s jersey.

#

Name: James |

Also, I just found this page, so this could explain some of the hockey difficulties face in Armenia. Sorry for the fafct you have to cut and paste, but put that link in your browser.

http://www.tampere.fi/jaakiekkomuseo/emaailma_arm.htm

This is sadly more informative about Armenian hockey than the Ice Hockey Armenia site is.

Posted Jan 22, 9:23 PM |“Armenian Hockey Update”

Thanks James - that site was more informative than most other pages around. For anyone interested, please check it out.

On Friday, January 20, Armenian “Pyunik” and Azeri “Neftchi” football (soccer) teams were supposed to be playing in Moscow for the CIS Cup Semifinals. According to RFE/RL and other sources,

Armenia’s leading football club on Thursday refused to play against a team from Azerbaijan in the semi-final of an annual soccer tournament held in Moscow, citing organizers’ failure to guarantee the security of its players and fans. FC Pyunik Yerevan, which has won the Armenian football championships for the past four years, and the Baku side Neftchi were scheduled to face off in the CIS Cup on Saturday for the second consecutive time in just over a year. Their previous game, won by Neftchi, was marred by brawls between rival players and fans. “Failing to receive appropriate written guarantees, the management of the Pyunik club decided not to participate in the game in order not to politicize it and to avoid any provocations with unpredictable and dangerous consequences for fans, players and members of the Armenian community,” the club said in a statement.

I think the FC Pyunik officials made a blunder in refusing to play. There was no shame in losing to Neftchi, as the Azeris are sending their professional players and only junior players are playing for Pyunik. Having refused to play, the Armenian players came across as cowards. This must be a terrible blow to the morale of the young football players in Pyunik. And it is a terrible blow to the football fans in Armenia. I hope the Pyunik owners get rid of their incompetent, gutless, spineless management team.

Also: Groong

Okay, I’m sorry for saying that the Armenian Hockey Team sucks, but we can all agree that they have some work to do. All the hockey experts that I’ve spoken to say that a score of 6 is considered high and that anything above 10 is extremely rare, similar to soccer/football. Therefore their scoring is really really unusual.

Here are the latest scores from the tourney that they’re participating in:

21-2 loss to Bulgaria
47-1 loss to Lithuania
28-3 loss to Turkey

I think that scoring 3 goals on Turkey is impressive. I wonder how the game went? Did people protest? Did the Armenian players play with more vigor?

I wish I could find out more about all of this!

This blog has more details of the games. I don’t understand hockey well enough to know what most of the terms he uses are. This blog has some details too.

I’m sorry for being the bearer of bad news, but the Armenian hockey team sucks.

Last March, Hockey Rants brought you the sad tale of the Armenian Men’s Hockey team as they were slaughtered during the 3rd division World Championships in Mexico.

Playing the likes of Ireland, Luxembourg, South Africa, and Mexico (talk about hockey powerhouses), Armenia managed to lose all 4 of their games by a combined score of 142-5!

Goaltender Arman Lalayan was in net for every single minute and finished with a 35.50GAA and a 54.92 Save Percentage. Backup Mher Hovhanisyan was probably quite happy to sit on the bench and not be embarrassed in front of the Mexican spectators. [source]

The other day, the Armenian team played Iceland. The score? Iceland defeated Armenia 50-0.

This is HOCKEY! They almost never score in the double digits!!!!!!!!

[Game summary]

Check this out:

…thanks in part to a 20-goal third period, outshooting the Armenians 133-10. Harutyun Baluyan played the whole game in net for Armenia, making 83 saves (that’s works out to a .624 save percentage). Iceland, which scored seven shorthanded goals, was led by Gauti Thormodsson (7G, 9A) and Emil Alengard (9G, 6A, 33 SOG, including 24 in the first period). The goat of the game? Either Armenian forward Aram Simonyam (who finished the game a woeful -35) or Iceland’s Kari Valsson, the only Icelandic skater to not register a point. Ouch. [source]

Since when does anyone in Armenia play hockey?

Who wants an Armenian scout badge from Argentina? What are you going to do with this?

On December 20, the Armenian Federation of Sports Reporters announced its selection of top Armenian sports personalities this year:

1) Levon Aronian, Chess, Winner of the 2005 Chess World Cup
2) Armen Nazarian, Judo, 2005 European Champion
3) Movses Karapetian, Greco-Roman Wrestling, 2005 European Champion
4) Artak Malumian, Boxing, Bronze Medal in World Championship
5) Martin Berberian, Free Style Wrestling, Bronze Medal in World Championship (this guy won 2004 European Championship in Ankara on April 24, 2004)
6) Norayr Bakhtamian, Shooting, Silver Medal European Championship
7) Roman Amoyan, Greco-Roman Wrestling, Silver Medal, 2005 European Championship
8) Ashot Danielian, Weightlifting, Bronze Medal, European Championship
9) Laert Avagian, Judo, Silver Medal, World Championship
10) Arsen Melikian, Weightlifting, Bronze Medal, European Championship

Australia’s best chance of a weightlifting medal at the Commonwealth Games, Sergo Chakhoyan, has been identified as a positive drug-test suspect.

Australian Sports Drug Agency communications co-ordinator Simon Tidy refused to confirm or deny whether any weightlifter had been busted, saying any information would be released when appropriate.

But a source within the sport claimed it was “98 per cent sure” that Chakhoyan, 35, an Armenian migrant who has a previous drugs suspension, was in trouble.

He previously tested positive to the unfashionable steroid stanazalol at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane in 2001 and served a two-year suspension that kept him out of the previous Commonwealth Games in Manchester the following year.

source

Grand Theft Auto: when a new one comes out, my television is taken over for a few weeks by my boyfriend and his buddies. As they shoot people, solicit prostitutes, and drive really fast, they seem to be having a great time. It is quite a fun game because one isn’t forced to do anything, he or she can just drive around and listen to music even. (I liked the Miami Vice themed one, Vice City.)

When I was in Baku, nearly every computer cafe was full of people playing GTA. I was surprised. In the U.S., people are very touchy about kids playing such a violent game. This stuff is for adults - not children!

Onnik discovered a Yerevan version at a store this week. Great find!

I’m downloading the demo right now. I’ll get back to you in a few months when the download is finished. (ha ha)

As requested, we’re opening up a new category here at Blogrel: chess! Armenians seem to be quite good at chess and our readers’ interest in chess-related posts has certainly reflected that.

As such, please welcome our chess-blogger, Levon to the fold.

The Armenian chess team took a bronze in the World Team Chess Championship third time in a row. I am proud we have such a strong team in chess.

More on this:
Armenian Chess Federation.

from ArmeniaNow
AP report
Some Photos: 1, 2

Armenian Figure-Skaters Qualify For Turin Winter Olympics

Yerevan, October 17, Armenpress: Armenia’s figure skating dance couple of Anastasia Grebenkina and Vazgen Azroyan have qualified for 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Italian Turin after placing fifth at an international Olympic qualification event in Austria’s Vienna.

Incidentally, after the first event they were 11-th, but the second event proved a breakthrough taking them to the sixth position and the third event placed them at THE definite 5-th position. So far 4 Armenian athletes have qualified for 2006 Winter Olympic Games, they are Edmond Khachatrian-a skier and Hovhaness Sarkisian, a mountain-skier.

Did those Armenians really train at Tsakhkadzor?

While it would be a stretch of imagination to include chess in the sports category, I felt the need to do that, if only to provide more sports reporting as promised.

Karabakh Holds Another International Chess Tournament

By Emil Danielyan

The unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) is hosting another international chess tournament which has brought together some of the world’s leading chess players and is touted by organizers as the first event of its kind in the South Caucasus. The ten-day tournament, sponsored by the Karabakh government and the Chess Academy of Armenia, got underway at the weekend, with two dozen players from 11 countries, including the United States, Russia and China, vying for the top prizes in two separate competitions.

The rest of the RFE/RL story is here.

I don’t think many people outside of NK and Armenia will see it that way, but I am sure the primary motivation in holding this tournament was the national obsession with chess, rather than political considerations.

Armenia played Holland at home field and lost 0 to 1 in World Cup qualifier. Team Armenia put up stiff resistance but were hampered by injury of one of Armenia’s best players Edgar Manucharyan (who ironically plays for Ajax regularly).

This puts an end to World Cup 2006 ambitions, but for anyone following Armenian football, there’s marked improvement in players’ style and professionalism. Our guys are getting better at it, and I hope we will do much better for World Cup 2010.

Some links:

Sportinglife.com
Reuters

Armenian under-19 national team played well in the European Junior UEFA Championship. Put against the England team, our guys played well

As SportingLife.com points out,

England’s bid to win the UEFA European Under-19 Championship for the first time suffered a setback when they were held at the Ballymena Showgrounds…

However, Armenia had the final say, scoring a late equaliser which robbed the Three Lions of a victory.

Actually, as UEFA website points out, this is the first time the Armenian football/soccer team made it to the Championship, and in the very first game Armenia Team scored a point.

According to UEFA,

Petrosyan might have atoned for his earlier misjudgement and earned Armenia a dramatic three points as he burst clear of the defence in added time, only to be denied by Martin’s smothering save. The result, together with France’s 3-1 win against Norway, leaves England third in the section and means only victory against the Norwegians in Newry on Saturday will be sufficient for qualification. Armenia, meanwhile, must overcome the French and hope there is a winner in Newry.