I do not closely follow the European football championship, unfortunately, I have no time. But like many Armenians, I am a fan of the Iceland team. Why do we love Icelanders? Probably because they were able to overcome the complexes of a small nation that fully preserving their national identity, they have become perfect European.
By accepted standards, their football team is lower by “class” than many other championship teams, as I understand they do not have a player of Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s level. Hence, thanks to what do the Icelanders attain a success? Actually, there is no big secret here: high level of organization, discipline, thought-out tactics, team spirit, dignity, readiness to fight at every moment and in every circumstance. Hardly this team would become a champion of Europe but the point that it has forced the whole world to respect them, that’s for sure.
The stance of the Icelanders is exemplary for Armenians in many ways. We, of course, are not less brave than the Icelanders but definitely we are less organized, less disciplined, not to speak about the thought-out tactics and team spirit. For at least one and a half century, our intellectuals, as a rule, were orienting people not in the direction of developing these features but in the direction of “desperate heroism,” personal “dribbling”, the fabulous power of David of Sassoun. Perhaps, this is the reason that we have many talents but no teams, many party leaders but no parties, our schoolchildren are winning various international Olympiads on school subjects but our “average arithmetical” school is significantly behind by its quality from let’s say the same Icelandic “average arithmetical” school. We need not separate “sparks” against the background of general misery.
We need the elimination of this background and the substitution of it by at least to some extent standard, not the “best,” not the “ancient,” not a “special” but an average European level and “organized” background. To put it in a football term, we often abuse the individual game and lose the ball also in our playground. And such game as we know jeopardize your own goal.
Read also
…When the Iceland fans applaud and exhale loudly, it seems that the wind of the North Arctic Ocean is blowing at us.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
