Georgia national football team

Georgia
Nickname(s)	"ჯვაროსნები" "Jvarosnebi" (Crusaders)
Association	Georgian Football Federation
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Héctor Cúper
Captain	Kakhaber Kaladze
Most caps	Levan Kobiashvili (79)
Top scorer	Shota Arveladze (26)
Home stadium	Boris Paichadze Stadium
FIFA code	GEO
FIFA ranking	104
Highest FIFA ranking	42 (September 1998)
Lowest FIFA ranking	156 (March 1994)
Elo ranking	32
Highest Elo ranking	18 (1998)
Home colours	Away colours
First international
	Georgia 2 - 2 Lithuania ; (Tbilisi, Georgia; May 27, 1990)
Biggest win
	Georgia 7 - 0 Armenia ; (Tbilisi, Georgia; March 30, 1997)
Biggest defeat
	Romania 5 - 0 Georgia ; (Bucharest, Romania; April 24, 1996); Denmark 6 - 1 Georgia ; (Copenhagen, Denmark; September 7, 2005)

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The Georgia national football team is the national association football team of Georgia and is controlled by the Georgian Football Federation. The Georgian team's first match took place in 1990, while Georgia was still part of the Soviet Union. The team have attempted to qualify for each major tournament from Euro 96 onwards, but have not yet achieved qualification.

Georgia's home games are played at the Boris Paichadze Stadium in Tblisi.

[edit] History

Prior to 1990, Georgian players played for the USSR national football team. The first match played by the Georgian national team occurred while Georgia was still part of the Soviet Union, when they played Lithuania on May 27, 1990, a match which ended in a 2-2 draw.^[1](Curious fact:The match was between the two clubs FC Dinamo Tbilisi and Žalgiris Vilnius, but some time later, around 1992/93, officials football federations of these countries decided to change the status of the game to international. The decision was due to the fact that the clubs contained the best Georgian and Lithuanian players, so the countries designated the clubs their official teams). This was the Georgian team's only match prior to independence, which was declared on April 9, 1991. ^[2]

The Georgian Football Federation became a member of both UEFA and FIFA in 1992^[3], enabling Georgia to play competitive matches. The first of these came in September 1994, a 1-0 defeat to Moldova^[1] as part of the qualifiers for Euro 96. Georgia finished third in their group, ahead of Moldova and Wales, but seven points behind second-placed qualifiers Bulgaria. Georgia have subsequently finished bottom of their group in qualification for the 2000 and 2004 European Championships, and have finished third, fourth and sixth in World Cup qualifying groups. Consequently, Georgia has never qualified for the finals of a major tournament. However, recently they have shown relative success on the international scene by beating twice World Cup winners Uruguay and well established Turkey both in friendly matches.

[edit] World Cup record

1930 to 1994 - Did not enter, was part of USSR
1998 to 2010 - Did not qualify

[edit] European Championship record

1960 to 1992 - Did not enter, was part of USSR
1996 to 2008 - Did not qualify

[edit] Manager History

Roberto Vincente (1992, caretaker)
Giga Norakidze (1992)
Aleksandr Chivadze (1993-1996)
Vladimir Gutsaev (1996)
David Kipiani (1997)
Vladimir Gutsaev (1998)
Gigla Imnadze (1998, caretaker)
Vladimir Gutsaev (1998-1999)
Johan Boskamp (1999)
David Kipiani and Revaz Dzodzuashvili (2000-2001)
Aleksandr Chivadze (2001-2003)
Ivo Susak (2003)
Merab Jordania (2003)
Gocha Tqhebuchava (2004)
Alain Giresse (2004-2005)
Gayoz Darsadze (2005)
Klaus Toppmöller (2006-2008)
Héctor Cúper (2008-present)

[edit] FIFA World Cup qualification

Team v • d • e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Italy	6	4	2	0	9	3	+6	14
Republic of Ireland	7	3	4	0	8	5	+3	13
Bulgaria	6	1	5	0	6	4	+2	8
Cyprus	6	1	2	3	6	9	−3	5
Montenegro	6	0	4	2	5	8	−3	4
Georgia	7	0	3	4	4	9	−5	3


Bulgaria	–	2 – 0	14 Oct	0 – 0	5 Sep	1 – 1
Cyprus	10 Oct	–	2 – 1	1 – 2	2 – 2	5 Sep
Georgia	0 – 0	1 – 1	–	5 Sep	0 – 0	1 – 2
Italy	9 Sep	14 Oct	2 – 0	–	2 – 1	1 – 1
Montenegro	2 – 2	9 Sep	10 Oct	0 – 2	–	0 – 0
Republic of Ireland	1 – 1	1 – 0	2 – 1	10 Oct	14 Oct	–

[edit] Most capped Georgia players

As of March 27, 2008, the ten players with the most caps for Georgia are:

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1	Levan Kobiashvili	1996-	79	8
2	Georgi Nemsadze	1992-2004	69	0
3	Kakha Kaladze	1996-	65	1
4	Gocha Jamarauli	1994-2004	62	6
5	Shota Arveladze	1997-2007	60	26

[edit] Top Georgia goalscorers

As of March 27, 2008, the seven players with the most goals for Georgia are:

#	Player	Career	Goals (Caps)
1	Shota Arveladze	1997-2007	26 (60)
2	Temuri Ketsbaia	1991-2002	16 (50)
3	Alexander Iashvili	1998-	14 (47)
4	Giorgi Demetradze	1996-	12 (56)
5	Levan Kobiashvili	1996-	10 (84)
6	Georgi Kinkladze	1991-2005	9 (54)
7	Mikhail Kavelashvili	1994-2002	8 (45)

[edit] Current squad

The following players were called up for a friendly match against Moldova and Albania on 6 June and 10 June 2009.[1]

Caps as of 11 June 2009 [2][3]

Pos.	Player	DoB (Age)	Caps	Goals	Club
GK	Grigol Bediashvili	February 7, 1980 (1980-02-07) (age 29)	1	0	WIT Georgia
GK	Giorgi Lomaia	August 28, 1979 (1979-08-28) (age 29)	40	0	Inter Baku
GK	Zurab Mamaladze	October 2, 1982 (1982-10-02) (age 26)	2	0	Zestaponi
DF	Ucha Lobjanidze	February 23, 1987 (1987-02-23) (age 22)	10	0	Zestaponi
DF	Guram Kashia	April 7, 1987 (1987-04-07) (age 22)	2	0	Dinamo Tbilisi
DF	Zurab Khizanishvili	October 6, 1981 (1981-10-06) (age 27)	60	1	Blackburn Rovers
DF	Giorgi Popkhadze	September 25, 1986 (1986-09-25) (age 22)	4	0	Viborg
DF	Aleksandr Kvakhadze	August 17, 1984 (1984-08-17) (age 24)	10	0	WIT Georgia
DF	Giorgi Shashiashvili	September 1, 1979 (1979-09-01) (age 29)	30	1	Ergotelis
DF	Dato Kvirkvelia	June 27, 1980 (1980-06-27) (age 29)	37	0	Rubin Kazan
DF	Davit Gigauri	January 15, 1986 (1986-01-15) (age 23)			Gagra-Tbilisi
MF	Luka Razmadze	December 30, 1983 (1983-12-30) (age 25)	7	0	WIT Georgia
MF	Giorgi Seturidze	April 8, 1985 (1985-04-08) (age 24)	3	0	Olimpi Rustavi
MF	Levan Kobiashvili (captain)	July 10, 1977 (1977-07-10) (age 32)	83	9	Schalke 04
MF	Murtaz Daushvili	May 1, 1989 (1989-05-01) (age 20)	3	0	Zestaponi
MF	Levan Kenia	October 18, 1990 (1990-10-18) (age 18)	15	3	Schalke 04
MF	Levan Khmaladze	April 6, 1985 (1985-04-06) (age 24)	4	0	Dinamo Tbilisi
MF	Davit Devdariani	October 28, 1987 (1987-10-28) (age 21)	2	0	AGF
FW	Giorgi Merebashvili	August 15, 1986 (1986-08-15) (age 22)	7	0	Dinamo Tbilisi
FW	Alexander Iashvili	October 23, 1977 (1977-10-23) (age 31)	51	13	Karlsruhe
FW	Vladimir Dvalishvili	April 20, 1986 (1986-04-20) (age 23)	2	1	Maccabi Haifa
FW	Irakli Klimiashvili		5	0
FW	Otar Martsvaladze	July 14, 1984 (1984-07-14) (age 25)	12	2	Anzhi Makhachkala
FW	Rati Aleksidze	August 3, 1978 (1978-08-03) (age 30)	28	2	Győri ETO
FW	Beka Gotsiridze	February 21, 1988 (1988-02-21) (age 21)	11	1	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
FW	Levan Mchedlidze	March 24, 1990 (1990-03-24) (age 19)	12	1	Palermo