The Shirak Sentinel
Match12 Aug 2026
Emil Papikyan sends Shirak through
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Emil Papikyan obliged against Van. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Shirak.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Samvel Ghukasyan out for 102 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shirak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market17 Aug 2026
Shirak say no — this time
The offer from Alashkert for Lyova Mryan was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Vazgen Sargsyan, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.17
A mark of 8.17 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Shirak
Donald Kodia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Vazgen Sargsyan
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Narek Janoyan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ayrton Páez has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Shirak know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market17 Aug 2026
Shirak sign Hollman McCormick, one for the future
Hollman McCormick is 20, and Shirak have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
In brief
- Player ratings Joacim Holtan leaves them behind him
- Market The shop window has Ruben Karagulyan in it
- Market Shirak borrow Miguel Velosa