Iceland

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Team: Iceland

Iceland. Retrieved from Sports Illustrated.

History: 

Why is Iceland so good at soccer? For a country with hardly as many people as Pittburgh, they’re disproportionately good. You’d expect most Icelanders to focus most of their time on not getting frostbite, but surprisingly they are absolute soccer fanatics. Because it is usually too cold to play soccer outside, the country is covered in bright, warm soccer domes. Almost 50% of the country plays soccer, and 99% tunes into games on the TV or online. 10% of the population even traveled to France to watch their Iceland team play in the 2016 Euro Cup in person.[1] It’s incredible how much of the population rallies behind their soccer team, and that passion for soccer is clearly reflected in the talent of their team.

The Iceland team was established in 1947 but spent many years as an almost joke team. Most of their players were just dentists or school teachers that played soccer on the side. Iceland qualified for no major tournaments for the first 68 years of existence, but over that time the soccer culture grew, and infrastructure was built. Soccer took hold of the country and spread like wildfire, until eventually the youth programs were churning out talent at an unrivaled rate. In 2016, the national team now consisting of a few professional players among the dentists qualified for the Euro Cup, and they made quite an entrance to the international scene. They tied Portugal and Hungary in the group stage and solidified their group victory by defeating Austria 2-1. They were then paired up against England in the round of 16 and thought to have no chance in the match. In an incredible outcome, Iceland, the European Cup debutants and immense underdogs, defeated England 2-1. Although in their next game they were defeated by host country France, their performance in the tournament was widely celebrated.

Although most thought their Euro 2016 performance was a fluke, they continued their period of success by performing even better in the world cup qualifiers. They finished 1st in their group over powerful teams like Croatia, Ukraine, and Turkey. Iceland finished with 7 wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses in their impressive qualifier campaign, with their most important victory undoubtedly a 3-0 away win over Turkey. The highlights of that match are below.

Key Players and Manager:

Gylfi Sigurdsson is undoubtedly the star player for the Iceland team. He has played for English clubs most of his career as a central midfielder, and he currently plays for Everton. He was a prolific goal scorer for Swansea and saved them from relegation last season. His experience and leadership are invaluable for the Iceland team. Midfielder Aron Gunnarsson also has European experience as a player for Cardiff City, and he is described as the “heart” of the Iceland team. He has served as captain since 2012 and he is the most vocal player on the field. He is constantly pushing his teammates and leading by example as one of the hardest workers on the team.  The manager Heimir Hallgrimsson played professionally for many years and has a lot of experience managing teams in Iceland.

Fandom:

The key to Iceland’s success is the fans. The unity and passion are the one thing that the Icelandic players will have over their opponents, because they definitely won’t have the talent or numbers. Iceland will need a roaring crowd to motivate them and keep them going throughout the tournament, just like they had for their incredible Euro Cup performances. The manager, Hallgrimsson, explained that after the Euro Cup, “The scenes that greeted us when we arrived in Reykjavik will stay with me forever. As we drove the 40 minutes from the airport to the city centre, huge numbers of people lined the streets and then, finishing up on Arnarholl, thousands more awaited us.”[2] The players will play so much harder knowing how many fans will be passionately supporting them.

Fun Fact:

The Iceland team celebrates each victory with their fans by performing the “viking clap,” an ode to the countries heritage.[3] One player or fan will bang a drum twice, and the entire stadium will respond “HUH!” and clap their hands, followed by complete silence. A few seconds later, the drum is hit again, and the same chant is repeated.  Eventually the pace increases until the crowd erupts into celebration. Below is a video demonstrating the ritual, and you can see how much it means to the players and the fans.

Odds to Advance:

Iceland resides in a group with Argentina, Croatia, and Nigeria. Argentina is expected to win the group due to star players Messi, Aguero, Di Maria, and Mascherano. It will be impossible to stop such a world class line up of forwards and midfielders. Nigeria performed extremely well in the qualifiers and look like a dangerous team right now. Nigeria has a lot of World Cup experience, which Iceland lacks, and Nigeria has a much bigger and more experienced roster. Croatia is a solid team as well featuring experienced players from all over Europe, but they looked shaky in their qualifiers. Iceland and Croatia were actually in the same qualifying group and each of them won their home game. My prediction for Iceland is 3rd place behind Nigeria and Argentina. I think that the experienced players and incredible talent of those two teams will overpower the World Cup debutants of Iceland.

 

Written by Jack Bloomfeld

 

How to Cite this Article:

“2018 World Cup Underdogs: Iceland,” Written by Jack Bloomfeld (2018). World Cup 2018 Guide, Soccer Politics Blog, Duke University, https://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/tournament-guides/mens-world-cup-2018-guide/2018-world-cup-underdogs/iceland/ (accessed on (date)).

 

Citations:

1. “Five Facts about Icelandic Football.” BBC News, BBC, 28 June 2016, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36649759.

2. Hallgrimsson, Heimir. “Iceland’s Dentist Manager: the Players Are Now Legends … like England after 1966.” The Observer, Guardian News and Media, 9 July 2016, www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jul/09/iceland-dentist-coach-inside-story-euro-2016.

3. Demurtas, Alice. “‘HÚH!”, The Icelandic Viking Clap And How It All Started.” The Reykjavik Grapevine, 29 Mar. 2018, grapevine.is/news/2018/03/29/huh-the-viking-clap-and-how-it-all-started/.

 

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