Wednesday, 10 June 2020

Watching The Armenian Premier League – Round 21


June 7, 8 & 9, 2020

History
The Armenian Premier League was created in 1992 following Armenia’s independence. Previously, the league in Armenia operated as part of the regional structure of the Soviet Union, with the best side usually participating in the Soviet Top league, which Ararat Yerevan won in 1973. Ararat also won the Soviet Cup in 1973 and 1975, going on to play West Ham United in the European Cup Winners Cup.

Pyunik have won the most titles ( 14 ), then come Shirak with 4 titles and the Alashkert with 3 championship wins.

The National Side
The Armenian national side are currently ranked 102 in the world, sitting between Libya and Palestine, with 13 European nations ranked lower than them. Their last match was a 1-9 thrashing in Italy in the Euro 2020 Qualifiers but they did win in Greece ( 3-2 ) and recorded home wins over Bosnia ( 4-2 ) and Liechtenstein ( 3-0 ) in their group.

Armenia’s highest ranking was in 2014 when they reached 30 in the world, with notable victories in Denmark ( 4-0 ) and Czech Republic ( 2-1 ) and at home to Bulgaria ( 1-0 ), as well as a draw in Italy ( 2-2 ) in the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers.

The most famous Armenian footballer is probably Henrikh Mkhitaryan, currently on loan at Roma from Arsenal, having also played for Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund and Shakhtar Donetsk. With 86 caps, Mkhitaryan is the highest ever scorer for Armenia with 29 goals, more than double than the second highest scorer.

League Structure
The 2019/20 Armenia Premier League season started in August with 10 sides playing each other home and away. The top six sides proceed to the Championship round to play each other twice more for a 28 game season, with the bottom four sides going to the relegation round. The 2018/19 season featured only 9 clubs, and there were only 6 sides competing in the season before that.

Only two of the 10 clubs in the Armenian Premier League are playing their matches outside of the capital Yerevan, with Shirak playing in Gyumri and Lori in Vanadzor. Gandzasar are a club from Kapan but are playing in Yerevan this season whilst their stadium is being renovated. Alaskhert, Ararat, Ararat-Armenia, Noah, Pyunik, Urartu and FC Yerevan are all based in the capital. The story of the Ark clearly has a heavy influence on football in Armenia with FC Noah, and two sides with Ararat in their names !

During the winter break, it was announced that FC Yerevan were withdrawing from the league due to financial problems, and their remaining three matches were declared 3-0 wins to their opponents. Up to that point FC Yerevan had lost all 15 matches they had played. As a result, only three teams would contest the relegation round.

The Second Division of football in Armenia ( First League ) consists of 17 sides including six B teams. It is expected that one team will be promoted to the Premier League, although as B sides are not permitted to be promoted, the highest eligible side will go up.

Last Season
The 2018/19 Champions were Aratat-Armenia, who finished one point ahead of Pyunik for their first ever title and qualified for the 2019/20 Champions League first qualification round. Pyunik, together with third placed FC Banants ( now renamed FC Urartu ) and fourth placed FC Alashkert entered the first round of the 2019/20 Europa League qualifiers.

Aratat-Armenia lost 3-4 on aggregate to AIK Stockholm to drop into the Europa League qualifiers where they knocked out sides from Gibraltar and Georgia before being losing to F91 Dudelange of Luxembourg in a penalty shoot-out.

In  the Europa League, Pyunik got past a Macedonian side before surprisingly knocking out Czech side Jablonec to earn a tie with Wolverhampton Wanderers, which as expected they lost, 0-8 on aggregate. Alashkert also knocked out a side from Macedonia before succumbing to Steaua Bucharest, whilst Banants/Urartu heavily lost their only tie, to Cukaricki from Serbia.

Attendances
Prior to the winter break, the average attendance in the Premier League was 377, with FK Shirak being the best supported team with an average of 643. All matches since the resumption of football in Armenia have been played behind closed doors.

How To Watch
Live coverage of matches from Armenia is available on the Armenia FA YouTube channel. Highlights of matches are normally quickly uploaded onto the Armenian-soccer YouTube channel, which also has a round-up of the First League.

The Season So Far
Two rounds of matches were played in March after the winter break but the season was suspended on March 12th due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The season finally resumed on May 23rd  with matches being played behind closed doors.

After 18 rounds of fixtures, the three sides to drop into the relegation round were Pyunik, Urartu and Gandzasar. Ararat-Armenia headed the table..

Round 21
After 20 rounds of fixtures the Championship round table was as follows :

Table
                                    P          W        D         L          F          A         PTS    
FC Ararat-Armenia    20        11        5          4          34        16        38
FC Alashkert              20        10        4          6          35        22        34
Lori FC                       20        9          7          4          29        21        34
FC Noah                     20        10        4          6          28        21        34
Shirak FC                    20        9          5          6          28        19        32
FC Ararat                    20        9          4          7          26        22        31

Meanwhile, the relegation round table looked like :
                                    P          W        D         L          F          A         PTS    
FC Urartu                   19        7          5          7          23        24        26
Pyunik FC                   18        7          2          9          35        36        23
Gandzasar                   19        4          6          9          20        26        18

Lori vs Shirak – June 8th 2020 ( kick-off 15.30 local time/12.30 UK )
Lori are based in Vanadzor which is approximately 120 km north of the capital Yerevan and is the third largest city in Armenia. It is nearly 4,500 above sea level and two 8,000 foot mountains ( Bazum and Pambak ) overlook the city.

Although the city has a long tradition of football, the current club were only founded in 2017 and won the First League in its first season to gain promotion to the Premier League. This is their second season at the top level.

Work to renovate the Vanadzor City Stadium was due to be completed in the summer of 2019, but Lori continue to play at the spartan Vanadzor Football Academy, which has an official capacity of 880 but it does at least have a grass pitch. Lori’s home colours are all dark green.

In 2018/19, Lori finished 5th and were in second place after the first round of 18 matches had been completed. Two draws in the Championship round ( 2-2 at home to Noah and 0-0 at leaders Ararat-Armenia ) had seen Lori slip to third place before today’s match.

Lori have been an unusual victim of the pandemic, in that their Spanish manager and coaching stuff have been unable to return to Armenia due to travel restrictions of entry into the country, and with their contracts expiring on June 2nd, the previous scheduled end of the season, their contracts have not been renewed and Lori have installed a temporary manager

A feature of sides in Armenia is the scarcity of local players. Today’s starting XI for Lori featured just three Armenians, although another did come off the bench. Defender Artur Avagyan won 1 cap for Armenia as a substitute in 2013. The rest of the line-up consists of two Nigerians, two Haitians and players from Colombia, Spain, Portugal and the Ivory Coast, with a Uruguyan coming off the bench. The most notable player is perhaps centre-forward Jonel Desire who has 19 caps for Haiti and was the league’s top goal scorer last season with 17 goals, and is in second place in this season’s scoring charts with 10 goals to-date. Fellow Haitian Djimy Alexis has 6 appearances for his country.

Visitors Shirak come from Gyumri, the second largest city in Armenia, which is 120km north-west of Yerevan and 65km west of Vanadzor. Today’s match would normally be seen as a match between keen rivals, with the non-Yerevan, Kings of the Provinces bragging rights at stake. Lori won 2-1 at Shirak in the last match of the regular season, and the return fixture was a 0-0 draw back in September. Neither of Lori’s goal scorers just over two weeks ago ( Argentine Augustin Maziero and Armenian Arman Mkrtchyan ) featured today.

Shirak are one of the most famous clubs in the country, with 4 titles and jointly won the first ever Armenian Premier League. They are regular participants in European competitions. Shirak finished the normal season in, for them, a disappointing 6th place. However, a 0-0 draw at Ararat-Armenia and a 2-0 home win over Ararat has seen them move upto 5th and only 2 points off second place. Their kit today was a dark orange with a purple cross on the chest, and their purple numbers on the back of the shirt were difficult to make out !

Shirak had 4 Armenians in their starting line-up and 4 more made appearances as substitutes as Shirak fully utilised the 5 replacements option. Edgar Malakyan has 21 caps for his country, David Manoyan has 26 caps and Karen Muradyan has 4 caps. Their overseas players include 3 Serbs, 2 Russians, 2 Ivorians and a Nigerian. Ivorian Mory Kone is the league top scorer with 15 goals before today and scored a cracking consolation goal in the recent defeat to Lori.

Behind one goal is a raised grass bank, beyond which is another grass football pitch on the higher level. 

Along the far side is just a building in the corner close to the second pitch, which houses the dressing rooms and the mostly covered roof serves as a viewing point for 25 or so spectators, presumably club officials, dignitaries or sponsors. 

There is nothing along the rest of that side or behind the other goal apart from hard standing, and underneath the camera gantry are the dugouts. The ground looks to be above the main town, and there were some lovely views of the mountains in the distance and the town below.

The advertising hoardings around the ground are a mix of Armenian script and Roman. As part of today’s educational lesson I learned that Armenian has its own alphabet and writing system. The writing on Shirak’s shirts was in Armenian script whereas for Lori it was in Roman script. There was nothing visible in the Cyrillic alphabet, and only 0.4% of Armenia’s population is ethnic Russian. It is estimated though that over 90% of the population can understand Russian to some degree.

The match was very physical, and despite three very heavy fouls it took until the 20th minute for the first yellow card to be shown, which was actually for a shirt pull by Avagyan. A scything tackle by Juan Bravo, Lori’s Colombian centre-back, after 28 minutes did though result in a yellow card. In comparison, a Belarus referee would have already been looking for a pencil sharpener ! In total, there were 37 fouls in the match but only 4 yellow cards were produced.

In-between the fouls the first half established a pattern of Lori dominating possession, with Shirak playing on the counter attack. Ermakov, Shirak’s Russian goalkeeper was called upon to make a good diving save in the 4th minute to keep-out Alexis’ 25 yard effort.

Shirak’s diminutive number 10, Edgar Malakyan was their play-maker and deadball specialist, and he was at the heart of most of their good moves. Shirak’s best early chance came in the 22nd minute when his curling free-kick found centre-back Mkoyan completely free 10 yards out, but his weak header was straight at the Lori keeper.

Unfortunately for him, in the 36th minute Malakyan lost possession in midfield, and the ball was played quickly forward to Desire, who had the strength to out muscle Serbian Prljevic and lay the ball off to Shahinyan who sent a first time left footed side-foot shot curling into the top corner giving Ermakov no chance. 1-0

Shirak responded strongly to this set-back, with another Malakyan free-kick causing confusion, and a Lori defender mis-headed a clearance across goal straight to Russian Gevorkjan but his shot was bravely blocked by the face of Alexis. A long cross field ball then found Malakyan free in the left side of the penalty area but his low cross across the 6 yard box was scrambled to safety, then moments later a low shot from Margaryan was palmed away by the Lori keeper for a corner. 1-0 Half-time.

Shirak took control of the second half. Although Lori’s Iwu hit the side netting on 54 minutes, the pattern in the second half reversed, with Shirak dominating possession and Lori sitting back and looking to hit on the break. Shirak were unable to create much in the way of clear-cut chances, with only Udo’s deflected shot going wide, and a goalmouth scramble in the 80th minute came to nothing, and Kone’s attempt actually went for a throw-in. Margaryan then showed good skill to chest trap and turn, but spoilt it by shooting into where row Z would have been.

With two minutes remaining, Shirak produce the best move the match. Substitute Manoyan played a clever inside pass near the right touch-line to Aslanyan, who in turn fed Kone, who instantly lashed the ball across the goal into the top corner for a stunning equaliser.

Shirak pressed for the winner in the closing minutes, but Lori held on for a point a piece from an intriguing match.

Alashkert vs Ararat-Armenia – June 8th 2020 ( kick-off 17.30 local time/14.30 UK )
A Yerevan derby between the two top sides in the regular season in which Alashkert needed a win in order to close the gap on leaders Ararat-Armenia. Alashkert had started the Championship round win a 2-0 win over Ararat but followed that up with a 0-1 loss to Noah. Ararat-Armenia had played out two home draws, with Shirak and Lori, but remained 4 points clear of their nearest rivals.

Alashkert are another of the traditional Armenian clubs although they folded in 2000 only to be re-established in 2011, and their three Championship wins have all come since being reformed. The name comes from a traditional Armenian town located in Eastern Turkey.

The Alashkert Stadium officially has a capacity of 6,850 but it is dilapidated and there has been frequent talk of plans to modernise the stadium. It has one large stand with 1,850 seats, flanked on either side by crumbling terraces, with wasteland behind the goals, and practice pitches on the far side. There is also an old fashioned manual scoreboard by half-way on the far side. It too has a grass pitch. 

Alashkert play in yellow shirts and purple shorts, although their goalkeeper wore an unusual black and red combination. 

The ground is shared with FC Noah, and adverts for Noah's website were visible along the main stand.

Alashkert started with only two Armenians, fullback Gagik Daghbashyan has 16 caps although midfielder Vahagn Hayraperyan is yet to appear for the national side. Their foreign legion includes 4 Brazilians, 2 from Serbia and players from Estonia, Macedonia, Namabia, Nigeria, Russia, Bosnia and Senegal. Centre-back Nikita Baronov has represented Estonia 38 times whilst Wangu Gome has made 27 appearances for Namibia. Brazilian midfielder Gustavo Marmentini is the top scorer with 8 goals this season

Ararat-Armenia were only founded in 2017 and are defending champions. The use of the name Ararat has been controversial, with another club already being called Ararat, but they have been permitted to use it. They play in white shirts with blue shorts and today the writing on the shirts of both they and Alashkert was in Roman script.

Ararat-Armenia had only two Armenians in their line-up, Gor Malakyan has 14 caps. Their foreign mercenaries come from Russia, Ukraine, Macedonia, Haiti, Estonia, Cape Verde, France, Nigeria, The Netherlands and Portugal. The most notable name on their team-sheet was 34 year old ex-Newcastle and Bordeaux Frenchman, Yoan Gouffran. Mailson Lima has one cap for Cape Verde and was the leading scorer with 7 goals before today, whilst Ilja Antonov has made 50 appearances for Estonia and Alexsandr Damchevski has 4 caps for Macedonia. Furdjel Narsingh played for six different professional sides in The Netherlands.

After a sleepy start, the match sprung into life in the 9th minute when Gouffran received the ball from Malakyan just over the halfway line and his slide rule pass put Narsingh behind the back four and an unselfish pass gave Nigerian Otubanjo an easy tap in for 0-1. 

Alashkert then had a good spell with Hayrapetyan, their diminutive Armenian midfield playmaker to the fore. Brazilan Galvao turned and had a shot go just wide, and a few minutes later a dangerous cross needed to be headed clear for a corner. In between this, Ararat-Armenia's Lima sent a 30 yard shot crashing against the post.

A water break was taken after 30 minutes so the temperatures in Yerevan must have been much higher than in the mountains at Vanadzor. After hte break, Ararat-Armenia were untroubled, going to the half-time break still leading 1-0.

The first chance of the second half occurred on 51 minutes when Malakyan’s sliding interception only succeeded in sending the ball towards his own goal and put Alashkert’s Marmentini through. However, before he could get his shot away an excellent covering challenge cleared the ball for a corner.

Alashkert continued to press and the equalizer duly occurred in the 58th minute after a fine move. Macedonian Mitrevski ran from midfield, passed to Marmentini who in turn played in Bosnia substitute Glisic to twist and turn Haitian defender Christian Junior to fire across goal for 1-1.

It didn’t stay level for long, Ararat-Armenia hit Alashkert on the counter, and a needless, dozy challenge by Baronov sent Lima crashing to floor in the penalty area when harmlessly heading to the goal-line. Lima picked himself up to send the keeper the wrong way to give Ararat-Armenia the lead again. 1-2 after 64 minutes.

Alashkert dominate possession for the rest of the match but were unable to make any impression on the Ararat-Armenia defence. Indeed, the best chances fell to the visitors as they broke quickly, but Lima stumbled when put clear by Narsingh, and Junior’s cross on the overlap evaded everyone. Another swift break was ended by a suspected handball interception, but the referee waved play on. In injury time Alashkert resorted to sending aimless high balls into the penalty area but they had no-one to challenge for them, and Ararat-Armenia easily held on for the victory and to extend their lead at the top of the table to six points.

Ararat vs Noah – June 7th 2020 ( kick-off 19.00 local time/16.00 UK )
This match was perhaps the ultimate concerning the lack of Armenians playing in the Armenian Premier League, with all 22 starting players being foreign nationals, Matters did improve in the second half when Ararat brought on Zaven Badoyan for the second half, and Noah did their bit for the cause by bringing on Armenian substitutes in the 89th and 94th minute !

Ararat may have been the standard bearer for football in Armenia during the Soviet era but their last trophy was the Armenian Cup in 2008 and their only league title was in 1993. Their glory days are firmly in the past.

Ararat’s home ground is the Republican Stadium, which is also the home ground of fellow Premier League club Pyunik as well as to the Armenia National team. It has a capacity of 14,403. However, this match was played at the smaller Yerevan Football Academy Stadium, which in addition to the football stadium apparently has 9 practice pitches, outdoor tennis courts, an indoor sports hall, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a fitness centre and a hotel.

Ararat’s match-day squad included of 7 Russians ( 4 starting ), 3 Ukrainians,3 Brazilians and a Nigerian. Their kit was white shirts with black shorts.

FC Noah were only founded in 2017, as FC Artsakh, and were renamed in 2019. This is their first season in the Premier League. Their match-day foreigners were 9 Russians ( 7 starting ) and players from Moldova, Lativa, Guinea Bissau and an Italian goalkeeper, and their kit was sky blue shirts with white shorts. Russian Maksim Mayrovich is the top scorer this season with 9 league goals.

Prior to this match Noah’s two Championship play-off results were a 2-2 draw at Lori and a 1-0 home win over Alashkert. Ararat had lost 1-2 at Alashkert and 0-2 at Shirak

For both sides the names of the players on the shirts was in the Roman alphabet and the match started dramatically with a red card issued to Noah’s Russian centre-back Alan Tateov in the 12th minute. At first it looked like a harmless accidental collision, and after a few replays perhaps Ararat’s Brazilian midfielder James ran into Tateov’s elbow. In any case the referee’s decision was immediate but even several Ararat players consoled Tateov after the red card was shown. James made a full recovery and was able to continue........

The red card put a different complexion to the game. Noah had started quite lively and the Ararat keeper had already been called upon to tip a 25 yard effort over the bar. However, Ararat failed to take advantage of the extra man and they created only one half chance in the first half. For Noah, Manga made a strong run and received a return pass to be free inside the area but shot wide without troubling the keeper.

The attrition continued in the second half, only Noah’s Deobald’s twisting run and shot broke the monotony but the Ararat keeper made a routine save. Then after 65 minutes, Noah had a 2 on 2 breakaway, and Mayrovich forced a good save from Revyakin in the Ararat goal. For a spell, Noah were on top and 15 minutes late Mayrovich worked his way into another good position but the Russian could only find the side-netting.

Having given a lethargic display for most of the match Ararat finally put in some effort in the last 10 minutes as the Noah players started to visibly tire. A long ball over the back 4 put Ryzhov clear but he lost his footing before he could get his shot away. Noah were still able to get down the other end to force a corner, and from the inswinging corner the keeper was nowhere, but the ball hit Noah’s Manga and trickled towards the goal before being hoofed clear. Ararat then twice worked Ryzhov into good positions out on the right but his deliveries into the box were awful.

There was still time for a funny moment, with a Noah player lying on the ground injured, the referee waved the trainers on whilst walking backwards, only to then tread on the injured players arm. At least both the player and the ref could laugh at the incident.

In injury time, Ararat forced three consecutive corners. From the last one a low shot from just inside the area could only be parried by Noah’s keeper and the ball fell to the balding Isaev six yards out. However, from a fairly tight angle he could only hit the angle of the post and crossbar, and the match ended immediately thereafter. 0-0.

In summary, it was a tedious match but with an entertaining last 20 minutes or so. Overall, Ararat were poor and gave a performance which in England would have been described as "end of season with their minds already on the beach". Noah were the better side and probably would have won had they been able to play the whole match with 11 men.

Pyunik vs Urartu – June 8th, 2020 ( kick-off 18.30 local time/15.30 UK )
With only three teams competing in the relegation group there is only one match per round. Both Pyunik and Ururtu are seen as giants of the Armenian game so it is a bit of a surprise to see both clubs in the relegation play-offs, especially as Pyunik had a promising Europa League campaign. Under different circumstances, Pyunik vs Ururtu would be an eagerly anticipated clash, but with no crowds permitted and it being in the relegation group, it was probably a different matter today. A major part of the rivalry stems from Pyunik being located in the wealthier Kentron neighbourhood of Yerevan whilst Ururtu are in the lower class Malatia-Sebastia part of the city.

As mentioned, Pyunik have won the League title an incredible 14 times, although the most recent was back in 2014/15. Like Ararat, they also play home matches at the Republican Stadium but today’s match was also played at the Yerevan Football Academy Stadium.

Until this season Ururtu were known as FC Banants and have won the Armenian Premier League once. However, they have been runners-up 5 times, have won the Armenian Cup three times, and been beaten cup finalists 5 times.

Looking at the teamsheets for today’s match it was noticeable that both sides were heavily represented by local players. Pyunik started with 8 Armenians and brought on three more as substitutes. Artem Simonyan has 10 caps and Armen Manucharyan has 2 caps. However, from the team that beat Jablonec back in July, only two started today.

Ururtu started with 5 local players ( and it was 6 in their previous match against Gandzasar ) and brought on 2 Armenian substitutes.  Their only full international is keeper Arsen Beglaryan with 14 appearances for the national side. In Ururtu’s match against Gandzasar the visitors had started with 9 Armenian players and used 3 more as substitutes. At first glance could this perhaps be seen as the reason why all three sides were in the relegation round ? However, both Pyunik and Ururtu have impressive training academies and a reputation for developing young players and Henrikh Mkhitaryian was a product of Pyunik’s academy.

Today Pyunik wore an all red strip whilst Ururtu were in all purple. The writing on both teams shirts was in Roman script.

Ururtu took the bragging rights today in an open and entertaining game, with both sides showing more urgency and determination than Arafat had done.

Ururtu took the lead in the 63rd minute when the impressive Karen Melkonyan, an Armenian Under 21 International, was put through behind the right back and was able to lay the ball across the 6 yard box to leave Erik Petrosyan, another Under 21 International, an easy finish at the far post.

The lead was extended when the equally impressive Hakob Hakobyan, another Under 21 International, burst through the middle and then passed to Abraham Portugalyan, who cut back onto his left foot and shot from 25 yards. His low shot wasn’t very strong but the Pyunik keeper was slow to get across, and the ball crept in at the near post. Aslanyan, making his debut in the Pyunik goal had looked suspect all game.

Pyunik grabbed what looked to be a consolation goal in the 88th minute when Nigerian substitute Steven Alfred twisted and turned to the bye-line and pulled back for Azizyan to drill home from close to the penalty spot.

With 4 minutes of injury time to be played, Pyunik pressed for the equalizer but lacking in composure, three wildly optimistic long distance shots were launched in the vague direction of the Ururtu goal, before with the last kick of the match Gharzaryan cut in from the left but his curling shot went just wide.

Overall, it was probably a fair result, and if Ururtu can keep hold of their youngsters and they continue to develop, they could do well next season.

Round 22 Fixtures

11/6    Shirak FC vs FC Noah ( 17.00 local time/14.00 UK )
11/6    FC Ararat-Armenia vs FC Ararat ( 19.30 local time/16.30 UK )
12/6    Lori FC vs FC Alashkert ( 17.00 local/14.00 UK )
13/6    Gandzasar vs Pyunik FC ( 18.30 local/15.30 UK

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