"WE SHOULD BE ARMED WITH PATIENCE"
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[04:41 pm] 03 October, 2008
"Good morning," the Danish coach of the Armenian National football
team Yan Poulsen today greeted Armenian journalists in their mother
tongue. It is already nine months Mr. Poulsen has been in Yerevan.
The main theme of today’s meeting was the Armenian football team,
its achievements and the forthcoming matches.
The Armenian football team will host the Belgian team on October
11. The Armenia-Bosnia match is scheduled for October 15 within the
framework of the World Cup-2010.
"Romik Khachatrian and Karen Dokhoyan are invited to play at the
meetings," said Poulsen.
Pouslen is displeased with the team’s results during the
qualifiers. "The team didn’t justify our expectations and lost to
Turkey and Spain. We should further improve our skills trying to avoid
the previous mistakes. The teams of Belgium and Bosnia have medium
abilities. Our footballers should do their utmost to demonstrate
their abilities to the full. Armenia usually scores a goal with
great difficulties and we should try to break with this tradition,"
Pouslen underlined while speaking about the teams’ shortcomings.
The Danish specialist says we should look at things with open
eyes. "Armenia can only compete for the 4th and 5th places in the
subgroup. Spain ranks the first in the subgroup, followed by Turkey,
Belgium and Bosnia. Actually, we pretend to the 4th or 5th place."
Asked why he hadn’t expressed the opinion earlier, Poulsen said, "About
three months ago a reporter asked me whether the Armenian football
team can reach the final. I said that I doubted but didn’t exclude
the possibility. We have a good team and should play excellently at
each meeting and the fortune will favour us. Yet, it is difficult to
play excellently during ten recurrent meetings.
Pouslen called for optimism and urged football fans not to get
disappointed and criticize our footballers after each defeat. "There
are only eight teams in Armenia. If we construct a house we lay the
foundation first. The same is in football. Therefore, we should be
armed with patience."