Iceland review - 2016, Page 36

34 ICELAND REVIEW
draw against Portugal, who ended up
European champions. “Drawing against
such a strong team like Portugal, espe-
cially in our first game, of course gave
the team confidence,” Heimir comments.
“There’s always a little bird on your
shoulder that says ‘maybe they’re right,
maybe we’re too small’ but then after
the first game we really felt like we
belonged,” he adds. Celebrations erupted
onto the streets of Reykjavík. Cristiano
Ronaldo of Portugal, however, criti-
cized the Icelandic team, which resulted
in even more support for Iceland. “I
thought they’d won the Euros the way
they celebrated at the end. It was unbe-
lievable. When they don’t try to play
and just defend, defend, defend, this,
in my opinion, shows a small mentality
and they are not going to do anything
in the competition,” he said at the time.
Ronaldo was blasted for the comments
and it remained a talking point through-
out the Euros. Asked how the comments
affected the team, Heimir says, “We
didn’t actually talk about it, but, yes, I
think there was a bit of a sense of, ‘we’ll
show them.’”
In their second game, Iceland tied 1-1
against Hungary. Iceland had expected
to win but the result was especially dis-
appointing because Iceland scored an
own goal with just two minutes to go.
After feeling like they had both ‘won’
and ‘lost’ two draws, Iceland beat Austria
2-1, scoring the winning goal in the
final minute and securing themselves a
place in the final 16. There was jubila-
tion in Iceland, leading Heimir to joke
that Icelanders would probably change
the date of the national day as a result.
“We went through all the emotions in
this competition, especially the game
against Austria was a psychological roll-
ercoaster,” Heimir exclaims. But the big-
gest surprise was yet to come: Iceland
beat England 2-1, kicking them out of
the championship and advancing to the
quarter finals. Prior to the match, Heimir
had described it as a “win-win” game
because the players had already won the
hearts of all Icelanders for their per-
formance. If Iceland defeated England,
however, he promised that the players’
lives would change forever. With the
shock win, there was significant interest
in the Icelandic players and interest in
the team and Icelandic football in gener-
al has never been greater than right now,
Heimir says.
In the quarter finals, Iceland came up
against hosts France and bowed out 5-2.
“It was a shame that we essentially lost
the game in the first half [the score was
4-0 at half-time] but we did come back in
the second half to score two goals. Once
again, the players showed good character
when many others would have given up
in these circumstances,” Heimir reflects.
The team’s success at the competition
elevated the players to national hero
status and Iceland’s loss to France didn’t
seem to dampen Icelanders’ celebratory
mood. But not until the team was wel-
comed home by a crowd of an estimated
30,000 people in downtown Reykjavík
did things really hit home for the play-
ers, Heimir says. “In France, we were in
a protected environment and only had a
limited understanding of how incredibly
much support there was in Iceland. We
didn’t connect with that until we arrived
back in Iceland after the competition.
That is part of our responsibility as
coaches to ensure the players are in a
protected environment, but as things
are today with everyone having a phone
and computer you can never shut them
out completely, and of course there were
heaps of journalists and television crews
around us the whole time. But we were
naturally not following all the coverage.
We knew there was a lot of support,
just not how much. All this support was
incredible, really.”
HARD WORK AND ORGANIZATION
Heimir has previously described football
in Iceland as “amateur” and has criti-
cized the state of the national stadium.
“Football here is amateur to semi-profes-
sional. Almost all coaches have a second
job,” he states, explaining that the posi-
tion at the national team is an exception.
The international media were quick to
highlight that Heimir himself is a dentist
with a clinic at home in Vestmannaeyjar
(the Westman Islands). Heimir, however,
emphasizes that as coach of the national
team, he has only had time to book a
few appointments since last winter. “Of
course if my wife asks me to fix her teeth,
I’ll fix them!” he says with a laugh. As
different as they may be on the surface,
Heimir says in both professions it’s nec-
essary to adapt to individual needs and
characters.
The media also pointed out during
Euro 2016 that Iceland had a very small
staff compared to other countries. Lars
has since spoken about the Icelandic staff
being overloaded. Heimir admits that
some things could have been done better.
“Going to the competition was certainly
a big learning experience for us. I think
our preparation for attending the com-
petition for the first time was close to
perfect, but we could have improved on
the logistical side. We were also together
for five weeks, which came with its own
challenges.” Heimir explains that, as with
any group, there are challenges, but that
there are some differences with football:
“You have starting players and you have
as many substitutes. That is probably
the most challenging, to keep everyone
happy because all want to play.”
Hard work and organization was key,
Heimir says. “The team made up for
the lacking numbers with hard work, the
staff do multiple tasks and we’re super
organized. Everyone knows how Iceland
plays, that there’s real unity in the team
and we know what needs to be done to
win games.” You can only beat the big
teams by working as one and having the
confidence that you will succeed, Heimir
adds.
BUILDING ON SUCCESS
Iceland’s success at Euro 2016 brought
in ISK 821 million (USD 6.6 million) in
addition to the ISK 1.1 billion (USD 8.9
million) the team received for qualify-
ing for the final tournament. Following
the tournament, Lars expressed concern
about how the money would be spent;
F O O T B A L L