I tell people I’m a soccer pundit. It’s fun and someone has to do it. There’s weeks where you don’t really have to mention it and then there’s weeks where you have to introduce yourself a few times and hope people don’t ask you questions like a quizshow host in the lightening round.
“Quick! Who won the FA Cup in 1974?”
“Liverpool. 3-0. Kevin Keagan scored 2 goals”
“Oh yeah! Who was the Captain of the Soviet Team in the 1982 World Cup?”
“Oleg Blokhin! No! Wait… Aleksandr Chivadze! He was Georgian”
“Who holds the records for most goals in CONCACAF Gold Cup?”
“Yeah…I don’t know!”
Told you it’s fun.
Last week was a fun soccer week. One of the highlights was me being bussed around Glendale California with the Mayor and City Council Members on a tour of all the City Parks which included all the soccer pitches. That was fun.
I was also invited to sit in on an NPSL Conference meeting. I got to meet the owners of the some of the teams playing this season. I drank tea as a fly on the wall and later I got introduced to say a few words.
All this was essentially leading up to Saturdays…FC Ararat vs New York Cosmos match at Citrus College in Glendora, California.
I had known about the match a few weeks before as posters for the event were all over my home town. Whether I was going as a soccer pundit or a soccer fan…I knew I had to go see the New York Cosmos in Los Angeles.
I contacted my contact (yes! I just wrote that!) in the East Coast and let him know that I was looking for Press Credentials to the match as well as some one on one interviews with players from both the Cosmos and Ararat. I wanted to speak with the Coach of the Cosmos as well as the Coach of Ararat….who just happened to be the National Team Coach of Armenia as well. I sat around waiting for confirmation and I was told that press credentials were no big deal and that a chat with The Cosmos coach was doable. Of course… Me being me…I don’t like ambiguity unless I’m using it in a soccer column so I thought I’d better do some more legwork to get an exclusive with the National Team Coach. A day and a lot of phone calls later I found a local contact that assured me the interview. I’d never met this person before and as you do you have to give folks your background and what you do in the World of Soccer before that grant you Press Credentials. I emailed the bloke and got this email back from him.
Hi Simon,
We look forward to seeing you tomorrow and I will arrange both interviews. You have accomplished a lot and are a great journalist. Thanks for the email. It’s great you have already established a connection with the Armenian soccer community. I am running around today so I might be busy to talk later, but will see you tomorrow.
“great journalist” Wow! I’m pretty sure my new contact was probably thinking about someone else. But he was absolutely right…I have indeed established a connection with the Armenian soccer community…just check out my exclusive interview I did with Esky Eskandarian…and my interview with Jerry Kazarian. Needless to say, I think they’re amazing.
The two interviews I requested were with Varuzhan Sukiasyan- Head Coach of both the Armenian National Team and FC Ararat….as well as local lad, Moises Orozco, a U20 USA player who went to Tigres then found himself playing in Yerevan.
You can hear my interview with the coach here!
The interview went well and I was given a very cool translator by the name of Razmik. Good fellow! Nice Chap! I can tell you now that I really didn’t think the coach wanted to talk to me. He looked tired and the interview was cut down from the original minutes I was promised to something around five minutes. I was told that this was the coaches first interview and that the entire squad had literally just gotten off the plane, went to the Hotel and then bussed to training. A few days later I was told that the coach was being interviewed by an Armenian journalist and that he mentioned he was interviewed by a nice American guy the first day he was here. I’m assuming he thought I was American because of my added L B’s and not my SW London accent. Now the best part this whole thing was me sitting in on a closed practice session with the team. Priceless.
The second interview I did was with Moises Orozco. You can listen to that here!
So match day rolls around and I haven’t heard anything about Press Creds. I’m not bothered as I got two exclusive interviews and I’m pretty satisfied just going to watch the match. But…Me being me…I can’t leave well enough alone. I call another contact and ask him for Press Creds.
Hi Simon,
I have all the credentials for the match. I have informed our Media Director about you. If any issues occur please let me know and I will sort it out for you.
Nice! I head out to the stadium. I guesstimate there was 3000 plus people there to watch Ararat and about 6 to watch The Cosmos. Wait? No! We Can’t stop here…this is Cosmos Country…well not really! I never thought I would be watching the Cosmos period! Let alone watching them in LA so it was a weird moment to say the least. I climbed the 8000 stairs to get to the Press booth and made myself at home. I was the only one there except for this chap that looked really familiar. World Famous singer Harout was standing next to me. I can honestly tell you that I don’t know a single song this man performs but I do know he’s a legend. I had to take a photo.
The event felt like a League Two match. You could hear people’s conversations while the match was going on. There were kids there yelling and old men cheering. Cigarette smoke was everywhere. The tanoy system was horrible and the stadium announcer got most of the names wrong. If NASL ever gets to Los Angeles…I would want it to be like this. Shirts were being given away for free and people were promoting their websites and podcasts. I decided to take a walk around and see if anyone was passing around cognac but all I saw was really knowledgeable fans having a great time.
Okay…the match itself was really decent.
Editor says I should report on the match so I here it goes…
The New York Cosmos in their preseason match against FC Ararat Yerevan were led to a 2-nil victory with goals by forward Lucky Mkosana and midfielder Sebastian Guenzatti.
Highlights include Niko Kranjcar coming on in the 72nd minute and almost scoring a goal at the 87th.
But the coolest moment of the match was when the ref handed an Ararat player a red card. Pretty weak. The Cosmos bench decided that it wouldn’t really be in the spirit of soccer and the event if the match was played 10 v 11 and told the ref it was okay to go on 11 v 11. Class!
Ok…that’s all I will write about the match itself. I don’t want people thinking I’m a beat writer or match bloggist. The match ended and I decided to head towards the locker room to maybe see if I could get an interview with a Cosmos player. There were some camera crews and a Spanish speaking reporter there and plenty of fans behind a fence waiting for the teams to come out. I decided that I would really like to talk to Gio Savarese. I called my contact and asked him if there was anything he could do.
Wait there!
Five minutes later I’m introduced to the Media folks and about a minute after that I’m chatting with the Head Coach of the Cosmos. Good Interview. You’ll have to go back to my website and check it out later as I haven’t edited it yet (as I’m still writing this!) When the interview gets wrapped up I head back through the stadium and as I’m walking I see the head coach of Ararat walking out. He looks over and gives me a nod then comes over to shake my hand. I say “Good!?” and he shrugs.
Language barrier an’ all…it was good! Soccer takes regular days and turns them into good days…sometimes brilliant days. 3000 people watch some good football. I met people that I would not have met in a million years. Some guy called me a “great journalist” Good? “Not half bad” if you ask me.
