Armenia

Armenia 2010-11 Home, matchworn v Republic of Ireland by David Manoyan(?)

Before we get onto the rest of the shirt, look at those sleeves! The classic chevron pattern from Hummel extends the full length of the sleeves and really stands out well. Not that the kitman then knew what to do with the patches, they’re kind of obscured. Now, back to the shirt itself. The asymmetry feels a bit weird here, not sure what they were really trying to go for here. Possibly meant as a bit of a mirror of the asymmetry in the Armenian emblem? Not that the white stripe then makes much sense! A transfer logo is a bit poor, though this varied across even player shirts. However, the mini flag on the back will never not be a good thing on a national shirt and I think we can chalk this up as a success.

Used across Euro 2012 qualification, Armenia were very competitive throughout. Aside from a 2-2 draw in Skopje, they were excellent against the bottom three of Slovakia, North Macedonia and Andorra, scoring 20 and conceding only 4. Against Russia and the Republic of Ireland they did ok at home, drawing 0-0 and losing 1-0 but two away losses (3-1 and 2-1) sank their play-off hopes.

Sadly, Euro 2012 was a major outlier for Armenia, with other qualifications being much more of a struggle. Typically a 50-50 between second last and bottom of their groups, before Euro 2012 Armenia had never won more than 2 games in a campaign, though had rather overpopulated the draws column at times. 2014 qualification would bring 4 wins, though they still finished second last due to the highly competitive group and they’ve returned to their previous average since then. The Nations League tried to provide some respite but a humiliating 1-0 loss at home to Gibraltar and 2-2 away draw to Liechtenstein were compounded by a loss away in North Macedonia to condemn them to League D, were it not for the redesign of the tournament. League C in 2019-20 brought revenge over North Macedonia for Armenia to get promoted to League B, though a draw against each of Georgia and Estonia showed they need to be careful.

Sporadic would be the word for women’s football in Armenia with 1 World Cup qualification attempt and 3 Euros qualification attempts. Last seen in Euro 2013 qualification, Armenia have not done very well but did qualify for the main qualifying stage for 2013, beating the Faroe Islands and drawing to Malta and Georgia. However, every main group stage they’ve been in has been very poor. 2005 Euros qualifiers were an unmitigated disaster, 2009 they didn’t make it, 2011 had a 1-0 away loss and 2013 had two 2 goal losses at home. Otherwise, no joy. Men’s youth football has brought little joy, with a few exceptions. The U21s were competitive in 2013 qualification, falling short of the play-offs on goal difference alone but otherwise have really struggled. The U19s and U17s have both been to the Elite Round of qualification more than once, but hardly regularly, and they struggled when they did reach it. Beyond a 1-1 draw with Turkey at an U19 level, the women’s youth teams have not performed well, with further inconsistency in their playing. The U19s seem more active recently, with the U17s not being seen since 2016.

While Armenia have never participated in beach soccer, they’ve been very active in futsal, though almost exclusively in the preliminary qualifying rounds. Rarely last and once qualified to the main round, Armenia don’t show much in futsal but they can’t be considered amongst the very worst. Surprisingly, they participated in the sole women’s futsal Euro qualifying to date, edging Moldova and losing to Belarus to miss out on the main qualifying round.

For Qatar 2022 Armenia are not expected to qualify, but an open group could provide some surprises. Kingmaker is definitely achievable; a play-off spot is a very slim chance but still a chance. Germany are expected to dominate but Romania, Iceland, North Macedonia and Liechtenstein may have to be wary of the team that just got promoted to League B.