Joaquín Caparrós is making history with Armenia. If in November of last year already achieved the milestone of promoting the national team to the second division of the Nations League, now in the news for rubbing shoulders with Germany at the top of Group J in the World Cup qualification. Caparrós’s are second, with the same points as the four-time champion. In the first match they beat Liechtenstein at the very least, something that falls within the logic; but in the second match they gave the surprise against Iceland, which they defeated 2-0. “Whoever wants to beat us will have to sweat and suffer,” Caparrós said in an interview with AS in November.
The path of the Spanish coach in Armenia has not been easy at all. Caparros signed just at the beginning of the pandemic and in September of last year the country was immersed in a war with Azerbaijan over Upper Karabakh. “Almost all the players knew people who were at the front. Relatives who had passed away, friends who were there. You can’t talk about sporting goals when family and friends are dying,” he said in the interview. The truth is after the conflict ended, Armenia won the last two matches to get promotion to the B League of Nations and since then he has counted his matches by victories. “Going up to Nations League B is like winning the World Cup for Spain,” he said.
Armenia has a pronounced Spanish accent. Caparrós received the offer to become a coach after a call from Ginés Meléndez, who in March had just become sports director of the Armenian Federation. Caparrós himself told AS that from the beginning he was dazzled by the project. In addition to Meléndez and Caparrós, Armenia has the one who was a physical trainer of the National Team for 18 years, Javier Miñano. And we must add Luciano Martín, who has always accompanied him, Pablo Llanes (physio) and Antonio Flores and Rubén Lezcano (sports director). Caparros has a contract until November 2021, once the World Cup qualifying phase is over and then fate will decide. Meanwhile Armenia will continue dreaming.
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