MENTION THE “football stadium” as your intended destination to a local here and you’re almost invariably directed or taken to the imposing Hrazdan, with its 51,000 seats, nestled in a valley on the south-west edge of town.
Tonight’s game against Ireland, though, hasn’t generated nearly enough interest and will struggle to fill even the 15,000 Hanrapetakan (Republican) stadium a few miles up the road.
In the circumstances, perhaps, his employers might well have preferred if national coach Vardan Minasyan had opted to predict another of those surprise results the Armenians occasionally spring on unsuspecting visitors.
The 36 year-old would make a poor car salesman, though, for he spent a portion of his lunchtime press conference modestly hinting at how much he has to learn from his veteran opposite number this evening. Given that more than a third of his squad are current or recent under-21s, it would be nice to think they’re up for being taught a lesson or two.
Despite his own youth, Minasyan, who enjoyed a decent playing career that included spells in Russia and Switzerland, has been in coaching for five years now and this is actually his second stint in charge of the national team. He also coaches Pyunik, the Armenian national champions and is likely to cap four of his club’s players this evening. The team will be completed by one or two other locally-based players augmented by a couple apiece from lesser clubs in Russia and Denmark as well, of course, as Henrikh Mikhitaryan the talented “number 10” who, as of this week’s €6 million transfer, plays his football with Shakhtar Donetsk in the Ukraine.
Mkhitaryan got more than a passing mention at yesterday’s press conference but it was a question about Robbie Keane that produced the event’s most memorable moment, with Minasyan, despite his good English, briefly getting the wrong end of the stick and perking up at the prospect that the Ireland skipper might not play.
Like Trapattoni, the Armenian coach has had his injury problems and it seems he will have to engage in a spot of improvisation down his team’s left-hand side. Like the Italian too, he spoke a little about winning the game but sounded less than convincing, observing in the end that “the game will show what will happen.”
Last year’s 4-1 win for the country’s under-21s over Ireland was well received here and several of the key players from that win will feature this evening. Minasyan, though, dismissed the game as irrelevant, insisting: “Under-21 is a completely different level, not every player in the Under-21s plays in the Premier League. This (Ireland) is a very strong, very aggressive team which plays in Britain. We don’t even compare it with Irish Under-21 team which we beat 4-1; clearly this is much better.”
As Trapattoni has suggested, the coach feels his side’s best hope of a result lies in aggressively shutting the visitors down in midfield. “But,” he says, “I have to find the balance between defence and attack. All of the team must defend, and all must attack. I think you will see that we will not defend all the time.
“Every team tries to win and while Ireland are strong we will try to stop them. Like any team they have their strong and weak sides and we will do our best against them.”
Whatever happens this evening, though, Minasyan acknowledges it is Trapattoni’s side rather than his own that has the opportunity to go on and at least challenge for a place at the next European Championships.
