Another, eighteenth, national championship in soccer ended this month. It ended without surprises – FC Pyunik representing capital Yerevan, with 65 points in 28 games, won the title for the ninth time in a row. FC Mika finished second (53 points) and FC Ulis took the third place. Last season’s runner-up Ararat, a legendary team for generations of Armenian fans, is leaving the top division to give way to Impulse from Dilijan, a newcomer in the top flight’s 2010 season. The top scorer in the 2009 Armenian premier league is Artur Kocharyan from Ulis (15 goals). Boti Demel from Mika and Arsen Avetisyan from FC Gandzasar Kapan, meanwhile, scored 14 goals each.

Armenia’s longtime soccer champion FC Pyunik (Yerevan) won another national title beating Gyumri’s Shirak 3-1 on the penultimate day of the championship on Sunday.

Pyunik’s chaser Mika achieved a late 2-1 victory against Kilikia in Round 27 and settled for the runner-up’s spot.

On Monday morning Armenia’s national soccer team left for Turkey where they will be involved in midweek action against the neighboring nation’s team that is likely to go beyond just the game of soccer.

On October 14, Turkey and Armenia will play in the northwestern city of Bursa, some 90 kilometers to the south of Istanbul, in a sporting event that will mark the completion of more than a year-long “soccer diplomacy” initiated by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in the middle of 2008 ahead of the two teams’ first-leg match in Yerevan