Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.11.2013, Blaðsíða 10

10The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 17 — 2013
Iceland’s qualification campaign began
in September of 2012 the same way it
began for the undistinguished qualifica-
tion campaigns for the 2012 European
Championships and the 2010 World
Cup: against Norway. In front of more
than 8,000 home fans drinking coffee
out of paper cups, eating Domino’s by
the slice, and chanting “Áfram Ísland!”
Iceland won a scrappy encounter with
two slightly f luky goals.
After a frustrating one-nil loss in Cy-
prus four days later, though, it looked like
the same old story: Iceland, as one of the
bottom seeds in the group, would show
flashes of class just frequently enough to
disappoint by inevitably fizzling. But Ice-
land kept pace near the lead of the group
with dramatic wins in Albania and Slo-
venia, thanks to late goals from Gylfi Þór
Sigurðsson, a regular at top London side
Tottenham Hotspurs.
Iceland’s style of play lends itself to
maddening letdowns and improbable he-
roics: impetuous attacking covered at the
back by a defensive strategy based around
wildly improvisatory marking, relieved by
hilariously frank fouls. In ten qualifying
matches, Iceland scored 17 goals—tied for
the most in the group alongside winners
Switzerland—and conceded 15—also tied
for most in the group alongside last-place
finishers Cyprus.
The turning point came this Septem-
ber in Switzerland. Down 4–1 with near-
ly an hour gone against a notoriously
stingy side, Iceland came back to earn a
4–4 tie, left-footed right winger Jóhann
Berg Guðmundsson completing a hat-
trick with a gorgeous 20-yard curler in
injury time. Nervy but efficient home
wins against Albania and Cyprus fol-
lowed, and on October 15, with the pres-
sure on, Iceland drew 1–1 in Norway, en-
suring an unprecedented second-place
playoff spot in front of an estimated
2,500 travelling Icelandic fans.
The squad that ground out a result in
Oslo last month has evolved considerably
from the team that sprung a surprise in
Reykjavík last fall. Coach Lars Lagerbäck
has reintegrated Eiður Smári Guðjohn-
sen, the most accomplished Icelandic
footballer of all time, back from a 2011
broken leg and a winding-down career,
and has shown increasing trust in a young
core from whom much is expected. The
same eleven started the last three quali-
fiers, and the team is peaking: still going
up bravely and brutishly for every header,
but also looking patient and incisive in
possession, with Eiður tracking back into
midfield to play neat triangular passes
with teammates a generation younger.
Watching Iceland play, the current run
seems less and less miraculous. And in a
sense, it isn’t.
The beautiful (per capita) game
There was a time when the Icelandic
men’s national football team consisted of
pioneers carving out careers abroad along-
side part-timers plying their trade in the
comparatively uncompetitive Icelandic
domestic league. But Icelandic footballers,
like other creative young professionals,
have become a notable export in recent
decades: the national side currently has
its choice of around 70 players active in
foreign leagues.
As the rest of the footballing world’s
eyes turn to this underdog story, with for-
eign journalists cold-calling local sports-
writers to uncover the secret of Iceland’s
success, the narrative that has emerged is
that KSÍ, the Icelandic Football Associa-
tion, enacted significant changes in 2000,
building more artificial-turf pitches for
year-round small-side games, and increas-
ing the number of trained coaches. Ice-
land’s newest stars came up through the
youth set-up here, many moving abroad as
teenagers to the academies of bigger clubs
elsewhere in Scandinavia before graduat-
ing to top-tier European leagues.
The captain, Aron Einar Gunnars-
son, is also captain of Cardiff City, in the
English Premier League, and atop the
scoring table for Dutch Eredivisie is the
defence-stretching striker Alfred Finn-
bogason. (Notably, one player who has
not followed this path is the goalkeeper,
Hannes Þór Halldódrsson, who has spent
his entire career in Iceland, and just won
this summer’s Icelandic championship
with Vesturbær side KR. Rather than play
abroad in the off-season when most other
European leagues run, Hannes pursues
his other career: as a director for the pro-
duction company Sagafilm, where he has
directed a number of commercials and
music videos, including for ‘Never For-
get,’ Iceland’s Eurovision entry in 2012.)
And so in the summer of 2011, Gylfi
Þór, Aron Einar, Alfreð and Jóhann Berg
competed at the European Under-21
Championships, for which Iceland was
one of just eight teams to qualify. Lager-
bäck, who coached his native Sweden
to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, was
brought in to guide the “golden genera-
tion” in the fall of 2011, months after it
was announced that the field for Euro
2016 would be expanded to 24 teams. This
tournament was presumably KSÍ’s ulti-
mate goal, and you wouldn’t bet against
Iceland, with an improved seeding po-
sition, a young team still getting better
and a solid, progressive infrastructure.
Though Iceland has never qualified for a
major international tournament, it’s sure-
ly only a matter of time. But let’s not get
ahead of ourselves: the biggest games in
the nation’s history are coming right now.
Áfram Ísland!
The rational answer to this article’s titular ques-
tion is, “Probably not, no.” But rational probabil-
ity has long since ceased to be a factor. Iceland
faces Croatia at Laugardalsvöllur on the evening
of Friday, November 15, and in Zagreb the fol-
lowing Tuesday, in a playoff for one of the re-
maining European spots in Brazil next summer.
If “our boys” somehow surmount Luka Modric
and Mario Mandžukic and company, Iceland
would become the smallest country ever to com-
pete at the world’s biggest sporting event—and
what’s one more upset, after coming this far?
“Iceland’s style of play
lends itself to mad-
dening letdowns and
improbable heroics.”
Could Iceland Qualify
For The World Cup?
Iceland shocked the world by making it to this
month’s play-off, but the best is yet to come…
— Mark Asch
A dinner or lunch at the elevated fourth floor of Harpa concert hall is a destination
in itself. Relax and enjoy fine Italian cuisine complemented with a spectacular
panoramic view of Reykjavík and the surrounding horizon.
UNIQUE EXPERIENCE
AND A VIEW LIKE NO OTHER
Kolabrautin is on
4th floor Harpa
Reservations
+354 519 9700
info@kolabrautin.is
www.kolabrautin.is
Notað
A Bluffer’s Guide to the
Icelandic Men’s
National Football Team
Gylfi Þór Sigurðsson,
midfielder, age 24
Iceland’s best player, and one of
the better central midfielders in
Europe. A dead-ball specialist
and clever attacker, he has lately
sat deeper in midfield, playing
defence-unlocking passes into the
box.
Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen,
forward, age 35
Iceland’s leading scorer with 24
goals in 76 appearances. Won
the English Premier League with
Chelsea, and the UEFA Champi-
ons League with Barcelona. As a
teenager, in 1996, in an interna-
tional friendly against Estonia,
he came on as a substitute for his
father Arnór.
Kolbeinn Sigþórsson,
forward, age 23
Strong, prolific striker who has
scored 13 goals in 19 international
matches, including one in each of
the last four World Cup qualifiers
as Iceland went unbeaten. One
more goal for Iceland will see him
tied for third-most all time, right
alongside Arnór Guðjohnsen.
Birkir Bjarnason,
midfielder, age 25
A uniquely delightful player, a
goal-poaching, ball-winning left-
winger. Goes hard into challenges
in the air and on the ground—
seems, in fact, to spend the entire
90 minutes ricocheting off other
players, blonde hair f lying behind.
To fans of Sampdoria, his club in
Italy’s Serie A, he is “il vichingo”—
the Viking.
KEY PLAYERS
Sports | Áfram Ísland