Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.06.2019, Page 10

Iceland’s mighty armada of deadly
footballing wildlings visited unholy
ruination upon the meek mice of
Albania and terrified Turkey this
month in an emphatic pair of smit-
ings on the way to Euro 2020 glory.
The games were considered
must-win fixtures for Iceland, as the
competition is fierce for the Group
H second qualifying spot; first
place will presumably be snatched
by current World Champions and
probable group-winners France.
Iceland, Albania and Turkey are all
vying to come in second—which
would mean progressing to the tour-
nament finals—making for a pair of
hotly contested matches.
Melting ice men
Both matches were played in Reykja-
vík, at the Icelandic national stadium
of Laugardalsvöllur. As Iceland
took the field against Albania, the
temperature got up to a sweltering
14—repeat, 14!—degrees. The blue
and red-clad supporters looked on
worriedly as captain Aron Gunnars-
son’s bonce slowly turned a fiery
pink under this bizarrely seasonal
sunshine. The doubt flickered in
their minds: would the
sun melt the mighty
ice-men?
T h e
answer, it turned out,
was no. Iceland played
a tough, rugged game,
defending hard, and
d a r t i n g f o r w a r d
when the moment
came. Jóhann Berg
G u ð m u n d s s o n
proved a particu-
l a r l y e f f e c t i v e
outlet , repeat-
edly skinning the
Albanian with
his electric pace;
indeed, he scored
the only goal of
the match when
he fired in an
impressive belter
in the 21st minute.
I t w a s
a m u c h - n e e d e d
win after a period
of wobbly form for
Iceland, who were
further bolstered by
the return of veteran
attacker Kolbeinn
Sigþórsson from long-
term injury. It was
also heartening to see
some unfamiliar faces
in the starting team,
w i t h
Hjörtur Hermanns-
son starting in
d e f e n c e , R ú n a r
Már Sigurjónsson
in midfield and
Viðar Kjartansson
up front. Iceland
have suffered in
recent years when
first team players
are injured, so this
blooding of some
new warriors was
long overdue.
The omens were
good, the victory
deserved, and the
scene set for the big
game against an old
foe: Turkey.
Steely-eyed
vigour
The second game proved to be some-
thing of a grudge match. Last time
Iceland faced Turkey, they smited
them out of contention for the World
Cup. A storm-in-a-teacup pre-game
controversy about clearing security
at Keflavík Airport added some extra
spice to the atmosphere as the start-
ing whistle blew.
The horde charged forth with
steely-eyed vigour, strafing crosses
towards the Turkish goal from left
and right. The Turkish defence
was flat-footed and slow to react in
the hot sun of the Laugardalsvöl-
lur national stadium; the Iceland-
ers energetic and focussed. Birkir
Bjarnason missed a glorious chance
before, in the 21st minute, veteran
defender Ragnar Sigurðsson sprang
the offside trap and headed in a stel-
lar first goal from a Jóhann Berg
Guðmundsson free kick. A second
came ten minutes later, when
Ragnar headed in a loose ball from
a swooping Gylfi Sigurðsson corner.
World domination
Turkey did well to pull one goal
back just before halftime, with an
emphatic header from a corner. As
the game got back underway, they
tried to pull up the energy level, but
they discovered that getting past
Iceland’s defence is even harder than
getting through customs. The shield
wall held firm, and Ragnar Sigurðs-
son missed a golden opportunity
for a hattrick. Turkey pressed until
the end, but after five minutes of
extra time the final whistle blew. The
gravity of the victory wasn’t lost on
the Icelandic players, who celebrated
as if the Euro 2020 trophy was theirs
already.
The victory put Iceland joint top
of Group H, drawn on nine points
with France and
Turkey. The next
games are home
against Moldova
on September 7th,
before the long-
ship sets sail for
A lbania on the
9th; that round of
fixtures is followed
by games in the
Reykjavík fortress
of Laugardalsvöllur
against France and
Andorra in Octo-
ber. The final group
stage games take
place in November,
when two away
c r u n c h - g a m e s
against Turkey and
Moldova will decide
the group result.
Follow our live-tweets on Euro
qualification matchdays on Twit-
ter at @rvkgrapevine. Iceland's
indomitable and unstoppable
march to the Euro 2020 trophy
will continue throughout 2019,
as Aron, Gylfi, Jóhann Berg and
the boys smite their way through
all the continents of the world,
laying waste to any team foolish
enough to step into their terrible
path to glory.
#IcelandSmites
FOOTBALL
10 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10— 2019
Siri: Is It Legal
To Spank A
Turkey?
Iceland’s smite train gets back on
schedule with back-to-back
Euro 2020 wins
Words: John Rogers Illustration: Lóa Hlín Hjálmtýsdóttir
We are definitely going to win Euro 2020
THE REAL THING
Pepsi League
Roundup

Ah, Pepsi. It’s not quite The Real Thing,
but it’s everywhere anyway. Some
people inexplicably prefer it to Coke,
but we don’t understand those peo-
ple.
And so it is with the top division of
Icelandic football, the “Pepsi-deildin,”
or “Pepsi League.” While the rest of
the footballing world (Coke, in this
floundering metaphor) goes on sum-
mer vacation, there isn’t much for
Iceland’s Premier League-obsessed
football fans to drink (watch) except
tumbleweed, transfer news, a few
international games, and—if they get
really desperate—some other weird
sport like baseball.
Iceland’s Pepsi League, however,
runs from May to September. This is
because, for most of Iceland’s year,
it’s winter. If it isn’t winter, it’s usu-
ally some kind of weird hailstone tor-
nado that occasionally changes to a
vicious rainstorm or a short burst of
sunshine when everybody runs out-
side in shorts for five minutes then
runs inside screaming when the hail
begins again.
Seizing this golden opportunity
to have a domestic football league,
twelve teams—largely from the dif-
ferent municipalities of Reykjavík,
with a couple of exceptions—play
home and away fixtures, battling to
hold the honour of being Iceland’s
top club side.
If you’re new to this little sporting
snow globe and looking for a team
to support, the top choices would
be pretty obvious. 2018 champions
Valur are the downtown Reykjavík
team, with a 1,524-capacity ground
next to the domestic airport. Think
of them as the Liverpool of Iceland.
Their biggest rivals are KR, just up
the hill in Vesturbær—think of them
as Manchester Utd. There are also
teams from Garðabær, Kópavogur
and Hafnarfjörður that you could opt
for, but if you’re going for an outsider,
ÍBV—The Westman Islands side—is
your best bet. I mean, they play on
an active volcanic island in a badass
ground with 534 seats.
Whoever you opt for, you can fol-
low the tears, drama, goals, glory, air
kicks and freak winds of the 2019
Pepsi League in this new regular col-
umn. Welcome to the thunderdome,
people. JR
“Iceland’s
mighty
armada
of deadly
footballing
wildlings
visited unholy
ruination
upon meek
Albania and
terrified
Turkey.”