Hi guys, it's been a while since I was on Big Soccer but I been really busy with work, family and my website/facebook/twitter pages. I will try to add some Icelandic news as it comes through, although we are now in winter break. If you need me to continue posting then let me know
Iceland have today announced they will play two friendly games against Canada. Both games will be played in Florida on 16th and 19th January 2015
The normal winter tournaments will start after the Christmas/New Year breaks The fotbolti.net tournament starts early January. Group A: Breiðablik, ÍA, FH and Þróttur R. Group B: Grindavík, ÍBV, Keflavik and Stjarnan. The Reykjavík tournament also starts in January Group A: Fjölnir, Fram, Fylkir and KR. Group B: ÍR, Leiknir R., Valur, Víkingur R., and Þróttur R. Then its the League Cup Group 1: BÍ/Bolungarvík, Breiðablik, FH, Fylkir, HK, ÍBV, Víkingur Ó. and Þróttur R. Group 2: Fjölnir, Fram, Grótta, KA, KR, Leiknir R., Selfoss and Víkingur R. Group 3: Fjarðabyggð, Grindavík, Haukar, ÍA, Keflavik, Stjarnan, Valur and Þór A.
There was a four team tournament played late November/early December called the BOSE Bikar 25/11/14 Stjarnan - Fjölnir 4-0 29/11/14 Víkingur R. - KR 3-2 06/12/14 KR - Fjölnir 1-0 (3/4 place play off) 06/12/14 Víkingur R. - Stjarnan 3-0 (Final)
Champions Stjarnan have lost one of their best players, goalkeeper Ingvar Jónsson has left for IK Start in Norway. Ingvar was named Iceland's Player of the Season for 2014 and made his international debut in the November friendly against Belgium.
Several American additions in Icelandic 1.Deild and 2.Deild this off-season. Joey Spivack moved from Vikingur Olafsvik to BI/Bolungarvik. He is a NYRB Youth Academy product Calvin Crooks signed with BI. He is a former U.S. Youth National Team player who signed with Crystal Palace when he turned 18. Ended up bouncing around the lower leagues of England for a few years. Aaron Walker signed with BI. He's a quietly solid number 8 who is going to be playing behind Joey. Junior Prevalus signed with BI. He's a Haitian/American striker with really nasty feet and a good physical presence. Will be interesting to see how he does against a really physical defensive standard. Will Daniels signed with KF Aegir. He's a forward out of Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. Big, physical boy with good feet and a nose for goal. Uche Onyeador signed with KF Aegir. He plays as a number 10 or a number 9 depending on the setup, he's out of Georgetown University and D.C. United's U-23s . Lastly, not an American addition, but Antiguan International goalkeeper Brentton Muhammad signed with KF Aegir as well. He's British-born, and a product of the University of South Florida. He's expecting to feature in WCQ's for Antigua this summer.
Hey, gonna be in Iceland 8/4-8/9 and saw that there is some league games going on while I'm there. Was wondering how it all works there since their websites are a bit meh when it comes to info. Cash only? Which is the best and easiest to go to? Gonna be in central Reykjavik if that helps.
Iceland now 8 points clear of 3rd place Holland with three matches to play. Iceland is going to France! til hamingju!
Yes, even if it all went wrong from now on and Iceland were to finish 3rd in their group, they would most surely still finish as the highest ranked third-placed team that also qualifies directly ... right now it's Albania heading directly for the Euro finals : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2016_qualifying#Ranking_of_third-placed_teams
Difficult to say ... I dont really know which teams got a website in English ... but you can use the league Wiki page to have a closer look at the teams and squads, which will make it easer to pick one out : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Úrvalsdeild
Anyone interested in Iceland v Hungary tickets for Euro 2016 game in Marseilles on June 18th? Category 1, face value. Please let me know if interested.
What were the odds back in 2014 when qualifying play began that the last Scandianvian team in the Euros would be tiny Iceland?! It's no fluke either. They are the best Scandinavian side right now. Can they make it to the quarters? England looks quite beatable, IMO. Some have said they should have not gone for the win on the last play against Austria so they could have gotten the easier side of the bracket, but I disagree. It was historic for them to win a match at Euros and not just draw three times. Moreover, had they drew they would have had to play Croatia with only two days rest, and that would not have been good. They were exhausted from chasing the ball for three matches, and needed the longer break.
Iceland is quite the Cinderella story of Euro 2016. Knocked out England to reach the quarterfinals. But I guess that shouldn't be too surprising given they beat the Netherlands twice in qualifying. Next up, the host nation France. That might be a bridge too far...
Congrats to Iceland ! ... excellent team-work, brilliantly coached so every player are perfectly drilled and know the game-plan to perfection .... but when you know Englands past history at the Euros, you also know that it perhaps was not too big a surprise ... to me it seemed like the English players thought they had already won and stopped playing after they got that early penalty goal ... and then after they fell behind, they went into shock and disbelief, which they never recovered from ... I would like to quote Gary Lineker ....... "England: decent players, not great players. Poorly coached. Tactically inept. Every player perfectly confused. No belief in plan or system." ... I think he is spot-on ... and then the best English players are usually not the leaders in their club teams, that is usually foreign players, so they also lack leadership in the NT ...
From an American.... Fantastic team so far in the Euros. In my little circle of soccer fans (America, right), your team is the one everyone loves. Good luck against France. We'll be cheering for you.
Iceland lost way too many heading duels in this last match against a highly efficient France that produced 8 attempts on target, scoring 5 goals ... but though the Icelandic defense was not quite up to usual standard against a well playing France, I think Iceland did quite well in attack and could have score a goal or so more ... but 5 very good attempts on target and 2 goals was surely up to standard from Iceland. ... after the first 45 minutes the now former Danish NT coach Morten Olsen noted that France took a rather cautious approach from start and did not attack Iceland as blindly as it has been the case in the other games ... Olsen saw it as a tactical move to get the Icelandic players to open up a bit, which they did, feeling more comfortable and not standing as low in defense as usual, which then gave the French attack a bit too much space ... and I think he is right ... but still credit to the Icelandic players who did not just give op but actually won the second half by 2-1 ...
Al in all, a great tournament for Iceland. Making the quarterfinals and going out to the hosts is nothing to sneeze at. Hopefully this will be the foundation for qualifying for the real prize, the World Cup in 2018. Iceland's WC qualifying group is hard in the sense that there are four decent sides (Croatia, Ukraine and Turkey in addition to Iceland), but there are no superpowers like Germany, Italy, France or Spain, so qualifying directly as the 1st place team is a definite possibility. Vel gert, Island!
Tiny Iceland took another giant step towards the World Cup with their 1-0 win over Croatia on Sunday. They now have to be at least co-favorites with the Croats to win their group and qualify for Russia directly. If they do make it. they will be by far the smallest country to do so. The current record is held by Trinidad and Tobago, which has over four times Iceland's population!