Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.06.2014, Síða 8

Iceland | For Dummies
With a heavy heart
Reykjavík waves
goodbye to May-
or Jón Gnarr who
concluded his four
years in office this
week. The parting is bittersweet tho-
ugh, as the city welcomes Dagur B.
Eggertsson in his place. Having served
as Reykjavík’s interim mayor for three
months in 2007–2008, Dagur is no
stranger to this role and reportedly
looked quite excited and happy to take
over the post during the handover cer-
emony.
On the subject of City Hall, it
seems Reykjavík will be blessed
with a Norwegian Christmas tree
this year after all. Just as Icelanders
finally wrapped their heads around
the idea of supplying their own tree to
stand on Austurvöllur during the holi-
day season, Oslo mayor Fabian Stang
announced that he had not taken into
consideration how popular the Norwe-
gian Christmas tree was amongst Ice-
landers, adding, “Icelanders also don’t
have Christmas trees that are as good
as we thought they had.” In short, this
is a Pity Tree, but we’ll take it!
Icelandair’s problems continue
as air mechanics go on strike,
forcing the airline to cancel 65 flights
last Monday. The mechanics will
go on an indefinite strike pending an
agreement, provided parliament does
not step in and pass a law forbidding
the work stoppage, as it did in order to
circumvent the recent pilot strikes.

If that wasn’t enough, Icelandair
was also in the news this week for
losing a passenger’s beloved fam-
ily pet. Hunter, an American Border
Collie in transit in Keflavík, escaped
from his travel case after it fell off a
conveyor belt at the airport. The own-
ers only found out about the mistake
when Hunter failed to turn up at their
final destination. The search went on
for a week before Hunter was eventu-
ally found. Hunter’s owners offered a
200,000 ISK finder’s fee and Icelandair
promised two plane tickets to the per-
son who delivered the dog back to the
airport.
As reported, whaling season has
kicked off again, although per-
haps more controversially than
ever before. Increased international
pressure has been mounting against
Iceland for its whaling activities includ-
ing a recent snub by US Secretary
By Nanna Árnadóttir
— Continues —
8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08 — 2014
If you have sat next to an Icelander while watching this year's World Cup, you will have heard that Ice-land almost reached the tournament. That is true, up to a point. Only Croatia
stood between the national team and
a place in the most watched sporting
event in the world. At the start of the
second half of the second leg of their
playoff, Croatia led 1-0 but were down
to ten men because their star striker
had been sent off for a foul. All Ice-
land had to do was score one goal and
they would get to compete in a World
Cup.
That "almost" in the first ques-
tion sorta kills the suspense.
Yes, a few minutes after the second
half started Croatia added a second
and Iceland never looked likely to
get back into the game. Ten Croa-
tian players were better than eleven
Icelandic ones. Which is no shame
given that Croatia has a fairly sto-
ried past as a footballing country, so
really there was little hope all along.
But nonetheless embers still remain
of the fire of hope. Icelandic football
fans have a hard time not thinking
that maybe, just maybe, if Iceland
could have scored a goal...
...and if icebergs were made of
grape jelly the Icelandic na-
tional team could sail to Brazil
on the Titanic.
And Antarctica would be the most
delicious continent. On the one hand,
it would be ludicrous to expect a na-
tion of 325,000 people to have a tal-
ent pool deep enough to reach the
biggest stage in a sport played by a
sizeable chunk of humanity. On the
other, though, the team came agoniz-
ingly close. But the game was up, so to
say, when Icelandic striker Kolbeinn
Sigþórsson, the team’s greatest goal
threat, was out of the contest halfway
through the first leg of the playoff due
to an injury.
No need to dwell on the fact that
Icelanders aren't going to the
World Cup.
The Icelandic team is not going, but one
Icelander is. Aron Jóhannsson, an Ice-
landic striker with dual American citi-
zenship, is part of the U.S. national foot-
ball team. He grew up in Iceland but was
born in Alabama where his parents were
studying. He spent several summers in
his teens being trained in the U.S. Soc-
cer Development Academy for promising
youth players. Even spending a winter in
a Florida high school for gifted athletes…
Since his football career was
spent in America, it's no wonder
he played for the US.
Only a small part of it. He mostly played
in Iceland in his youth and his first club
was the Reykjavík club Fjölnir. From
there he followed the typical path of a
good Icelandic football player, first going
to a club in the Nordic countries and then
transferring to a club in the Netherlands.
He did well enough in the Dutch league
to attract the attention of the US national
team, and now he is at the World Cup.
The Icelandic national team re-
ally should have pounced on him
first.
They did. He played for the Icelandic
national youth team and was called up
for a game in 2012 but did not take part
because of an injury. It would have been
quite useful to have another good striker
to send onto the field when Iceland was
playing Croatia, but that was not to be.
Instead the first Icelander to take part in
the World Cup is representing the US.
I imagine all Icelanders will be
rooting for the US at the World
Cup.
More of them than usual, certainly,
but reflexive anti-Americanism is not
uncommon here. And some people
took the news that Aron Jóhannsson
opted to play for the U.S. rather badly.
Notably KSÍ, the Icelandic football fed-
eration, which accused him of selling
out his homeland for money. The full,
ludicrous quote reads: "The only thing
that KSÍ has heard from interested par-
ties is that as a player for the US Aron's
income potential is completely differ-
ent and much greater in the form of
endorsements and advertising revenue
than if he were a player for Iceland. It
is simply the fact that members of the
Icelandic national team play for their
country and nation and receive in turn
honour and glory."
Whichever Icelandic football of-
ficial was caught drunkenly off
guard by a late night phone call
from a reporter must have been
really sorry the next morning.
That was KSÍ's official press release.
Like pretty much any country in the
world, Iceland really, really, really
wants to be at the World Cup. When
Aron Jóhannsson declared for the US
there was still a chance Iceland would
make it. It was like a delicious moun-
tain of grape jelly floating towards the
good ship KSÍ. But it turned out to be a
Croatian iceberg.
So What's This I Hear
About Iceland Almost
Being In The World Cup?
Words by Kári Tulinius @Kattullus
NEWS IN BRIEF
EARLY JUNE
TEMPL ARASUND 3
BREAKFAST,
LUNCH & DINNER