Special for the Armenian Weekly
Approximately 12,500 fans were on hand at Kuban Stadium in Krasnodar, Russia on Wed. March 5 to witness Armenia fall to a disappointing 2:0 defeat at the hands of rivals Russia. Goals from Alexander Kokorin and Dmitriy Kombarov gave the home side a deserved victory.
Already a subscriber?Log in here
This story is FREE for you...
Create a free account to access this and four more articles, and get more sent to you with our e-newsletter.By submitting your email address you agree for Hairenik Association, Inc. to send you communication by email.
Michael, I did not know even a friendly game will effect the country’s FIFA ranking. Before the game Armenia was ranked 30 and after losing to Russia dropped to 41. WOW! That is a lot! I hope Armenia’s new national coach will help the team, in order to improve Armenia’s FIFA ranking.
GB,
Sorry for the late response. But yes friendly matches count towards rankings but they are weighted less. I wrote an article about the calculation process a while back. In it, I predicted Armenia would rise to the mid 30’s by 2014 if their form continued, and luckily it did. It can be found here:
http://armenianweekly.com/2012/04/22/fifa-world-rankings-and-armenia-whats-in-a-number/