InternationalMovsisyan brings goals, victory to Armenia football
Published: Saturday October 09, 2010
Movsisyan celebrates after giving Armenia an early lead over Slovakia. Vahram Baghdasarian / Photolur
Washington - Armenia's national soccer team, now competing in the qualification round of the European Cup 2012, is , generating fresh excitement by playing its best games in years thanks to a productive offensive line comprising a number of young and talented players, in particular Edgar Manucharyan, Henrik Mkhitaryan and Yura Movsisyan along with Gevorg Ghazarian and Marcos Pizzelli, as most recent additions.
The October 8 3:1 victory over Slovakia, ranked sixteenth in the world, was the fist success of this scale for Armenians since they beat Poland 1:0 in a 2007 World Cup qualifying game.
Slovakia did well in the last World Cup, where it beat defending champions Italy before losing to the Netherlands, the cup's eventual runners-up. Prior to the game with Armenia, Slovaks were undefeated in Group B, after beating Russia and Macedonia.
Armenia began the tournament after losing to Iran 1:3 in a friendly and then to Ireland 0:1 in the first qualifier game, both played at home.
Playing away in Macedonia on September 7, Armenia's three forwards (what may soon be known as Armenia's "3M") exhibited great skill and effort, nearly securing victory were it not for a costly defensive mistake at the very end of the match resulting in a penalty award to Macedonia and 2:2 draw.
(UPDATE: On October 12 Armenia left no chance to Andorra beating the Group B's outsider 4:0.)
Movsisyan, 23, who played his first-ever game for Armenia against Iran has been at the center of Armenia's newly re-discovered offensive prowess.
Movsisyan began playing competitively for his high school and community college teams soon after his family immigrated and settled in Pasadena, Calif. He was drafted into U.S. Major League Soccer in 2006 and since then moved to Denmark to play for the local Randers side.
During about 80 appearance in under four years in MLS, Movsisyan scored 20 times. Since January, he added another 10 goals in 24 appearances (scoring nearly every other game).
Movsisyan has now brought his scoring streak to Armenia, reaching the goal three times in three games and coming close to realizing at least half a dozen other opportunities.
Movsisyan spoke with The Armenian Reporter's Emil Sanamyan just after he was signed on by Armenia's national team and shortly before the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign got underway.
AR: You played in MLS from 2006-9 and now you are in Denmark's football league, how did the idea to join the Armenian national team come about?
YM: We have been in talks for a long time. And I considered the options of playing for U.S. or Armenia national teams. And I thought the opportunity was much bigger to play for Armenia, my home country, and to help them reach new heights. That is my biggest goal with regard to Armenia. And meeting with the president two weeks ago [last August] made me decide that it was a right decision.
AR: The fact that Robert Arzumanian from Armenia's national team also plays with you at Randers [in Denmark], did that factor in as well?
YM: Obviously, he gave me information about the national team. But it was more or less for me to decide that that is the route I wanted to go in my international career. So he did help me out with information, but at the end of the day it was my willingness to go play for Armenia.
AR: When did you start playing football?
YM: Since I was a little kid I always dreamt of football, it was always a dream of mine to play the sport. And when I got to the U.S. [in 2000], obviously I had an opportunity to play in club environment with other kids. After getting to U.S. and having the free will to do what I wanted I chose to play football. And it ended up being the right decision.
AR: During your time at Real Salt Lake, you scored that goal getting Real into playoffs [in 2008], would you say that was the pivotal point in your football career so far?
YM: Yes that was a pivotal point in the sense that people began to recognize me around U.S. and the football world. It is a good memory, something that never goes away, because people live off of memories. That was an early turning point in my career and it was good to have that at that early age. To make a big difference for a big club at the young age was just a big boost for my career.
AR: What are your hopes and expectations for Armenia's national team and the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign?
YM: We definitely have a group from which we can qualify. We have good teams, Ireland, Slovakia, Russia ahead of us, as well as Macedonia and Andorra. But we do think we have a better chance of qualifying now than in previous occasions when we had Spain, Turkey and teams like that in our group.
AR: What's going through your mind ahead of those games?
YM: I am just trying to stay healthy and I know I can help the team out if I play my game. Three of the first four games are at home and the most important thing is to win in those first few games and from there on that brings out a lot of confidence in players and that will help us have a good campaign.
AR: Of course to win games, you have to score goals. And you seem to have the sort of innate ability to score goals very frequently. What is your secret you think?
YM: I think it just comes from focus, experience and my dedication to what I do. Since I began playing, I have had several years to learn a lot about the game. And now it is the time that I put my talent to use.
