The footballing world is in love with the current fairy
story which is the Icelandic national team. Iceland, the small nation of some
330,000 people, defied all odds by producing a football team that qualified for
Euro 2016. Not only did they qualify for the tournament itself, beating Holland
on the way, they progressed through the group stages of the competition into
the last 16 and then knocked an abject England side out to make it to the
quarter finals.
During the Euro 2016 competition, and while Iceland were still competing in it, I travelled to Reykjavik to add the Icelandic footballing ‘top-flight’ to my collection of European leagues. This took my number of European national leagues in which I have seen a ‘premiership’ game to 31 out of the 55 which are affiliated to UEFA.
My weekend started in the early hours of Thursday 23rd June. I collected my father and his friend, the pin-badge collecting Nottingham Forest fan, from their Derby homes and travelled to Manchester Airport. Our EasyJet flight was punctual and upon arrival at Reykjavik we caught the FlyBus into town. A ten minute walk then got us to our guest house.
We did a little bit of sight-seeing in order for us to get
our bearings within the city which included a visit the ‘spaceship-looking’
church – Hallgrímskirkja. From its tower we got a fantastic view of the city
and we tried to spot as many football grounds as possible from that vantage
point.
23/06/16 (19:15) KR Reykjavik 1 - 2 ÍA Akranes
Relevance:
A Úrvalsdeild (top tier) match.
Location:
Alvogenvöllurinn
Goal Scorers:
Chopart 53’(K), Gunnlaugsson 83’ (Pen) and 90’ (I)
Attendance:
488
Match Day:
From the guest house we walked 30 minutes west through the
suburbs of the city to get to the ground.
At the ground I purchased a scarf and my pin badge
collecting colleague bought a badge, albeit a clip on type, and we chose our
seats to the right of the half-way line.
As the ground began to fill we were joined in our location
by fans of the Akranes team. From what we witnessed in this and the subsequent
games there appears to be an informal ‘self-segregation’ between the home and
away support where there is only one stand used – home fans to the left and
visitors to the right.
Akranes is a small town of some 7,000 people and a 40 minute
drive from KR’s stadium and as such it was pleasing to see the good number of
fans which came along to support team.
The home team’s support was led by lone fan who stood at the
front stand. Resplendent in his black and white striped home shirt home and
proudly wearing some sort of official badge on his arm, his chants were keenly
followed, and joined in with, by two small children immediately behind him.
The home team looked far superior in the first 70 mins of
the game and the standout players were their experienced looking right back and
classy central and left midfield players. These players were involved in the
three best chances in the first-half of the game.
The home team took a deserved lead when KR’s number 17
picked up the ball on the half-way line with a good bit of control that took
him past his defender, a race down the line, a cut in into the centre, and a
fierce right foot shot to the ‘keeper’s left from 20 yards.
The away fans, who were quiet, were even more quite until,
against the run of play, a cross into the KR box resulted into the coming
together of a defender, attacker and ball. The ball struck the raised hand of
the defender and a penalty was awarded. The penalty was converted with a strike
to the keeper’s right.
The Akranes fans now, from nowhere, had hope. The Akranes
players also had hope of gaining full points from a game in which they looked
second best for the majority. As Akranes pushed forward panic set into the home
team. With a hopeful ball up field from Akranes, and with their strikers charging
forward, the KR goalkeeper made a bad decision in rushing out of his box to
attempt a headed clearance. The ball wasn’t effectively cleared, and from 25
yards, with a turning looping shot, Akranes found the top right hand corner of
the goal with the goalkeeper floundering.
The Akranes fans around us were joyous, and at the end of
the game, seconds later, the lady in front of us turned round to us with a
beaming smile and my badge collecting shook her hand and congratulated her.
We judged the standard to be equivalent to a tier 8
(National League 2) English game.
24/06/16 (18:00) Fram 2 - 1 Leiknir Reykjavik
Relevance:
A 1.Deild (second tier) match.
Location:
Laugardalsvöllur
Goal Scorers:
Jónsson 49’(L), Magnússon 70’ (F), Gavrić 76’ (F)
Attendance:
200 approx.
Match Day:
The day started with a whale watching cruise around
Reykjavik harbour. Unfortunately we didn’t see any whales but we were
entertained by dolphins that swam about our boat, puffins which flapped their
wings frantically as they flew inches above the surface of the water, and by a
herd of small Asian tourists who snapped away on their cameras at anything that
moved.
In the afternoon, from our guest house, we walked easterly
for 30 minutes to the national stadium, adjacent to which is Throttur’s ground.
As we passed Throttur’s ground we saw them watering the artificial surface in
preparation for the later game.
We had a good look around the external features of the
national stadium (a multipurpose arena) prior to queueing for the tickets. In
the queue we bumped into a couple of groundhoppers intent on not witnessing two
full games like us , but 3 partial games as they were going to see some of
another game which was also being played on the same evening in the city. We considered
these guys to be box-tickers as opposed to keen football spectators.
Inside the ground we sat again to the right of the half-way
line and took in the scenery of cloud covered mountains while listening to the
Tannoy which blared out the club song of ‘Fram-ba-la’. As we waited for the
game to commence we were joined by a couple families of away supporters, who’s
children ran about during the game. Thankfully they were not running around in
front of me and they didn’t spoil the game.
Fram and Leiknir are second tier teams and the
difference in standard between the divisions, based on this game and the
previous night’s game, is marked. These teams looked to be true amateurs and
played to a tier 11 English standard (Hilton Harriers being a local example
that sprung to mind). The first-half was a drab affair with the Fram having the
better of it.
Leikner took an undeserving lead early into the second-half
with the winger finding the top nearside corner of the net following some good
wide play.
Fram, one of the most successful club teams in Icelandic footballing
history, eventual levelled with a header from 10 yards that went underneath the
hapless keeper. The goal was greeted by a loud ‘Yo yo yo yo yo...’ from the
Tannoy.
Buoyed by their equaliser, with music blaring from the
adjacent stadium and with 2 people standing at the stadium fencing
watching the action for free, Fram broke quickly from a defensive situation. A
good, but unconventional, throw out by the keeper found an attacking team mate
and the quick break away resulted in a first shot being blocked by the keeper
but being put away at the second attempt.
Leiknir pushed on looking for an equaliser and a panicky
Fran defender handled the ball on the edge of his own box. Fram were down to 10
men and hanging on. Minutes later they were down to 9 men following on off the
ball incident. The home team managed to hang on thanks to some good
goalkeeping.
At the final whistle we strolled quickly to the adjacent
ground to watch the Throttur game...
24/06/16 (20:00) Throttur Reykjavik 0 - 5 Fjolnir
Relevance:
A Úrvalsdeild (top tier) match.
Location:
Gervigrasvöllur Laugardal (Þróttarvöllur)
Goal Scorers:
Ingason 37’ and 40’, Pedersen 62’, Gudjonsson 71’ and 73’
Attendance:
337
Match Day:
In the stand we sat to the left of the half way line. We
noticed some away fans file passed us to head to the right hand side of the
stand.
Fjolnir, in their bright yellow kit, started the game
brightly and it was immediately apparent that we were watching a very decent
team (tier 5 English standard) Throttur themselves looked far superior to the
teams we had been watching just a few minutes before (tier 6/7 English
standard).
Throttur were very much in the game early on and indeed had
the best chance when their pacy winger struck a shot that hit the outside of
the post.
As the fireworks to celebrate the longest day were visible
above the harbour Flojnir clicked into gear. A curling dipping shot from the
edge of the box struck the top corner of the net beyond the keeper’s left
hand. Three minutes later, from 8 yards out to the right of the goal, a bullet
of a shot went straight through keeper. The away team looked good value for
their two goal lead at half-time.
At half-time then near us sat a man who looked as if he was
babysitting three urchins, one of which had liquorice smeared all over her
face. The children used the bars and railings of the 1950’s looking stand for
their half-time gymnastic exercises. From within the fairly decrepit stand we
watched birds coming to and fro with food for their hatchlings.
The bringing on of a Brazilian player by the home team
couldn’t stop a second half onslaught by Fjolnir. The rout was completed by 3
more goals... 1) a shot from 17 yards high to the keeper’s right 2) a penalty
to the keeper’s right after a defence splitting through ball drew a foul
and 3) an 8 yard shot that went under the keeper.
After the game we made our way back to the guest house in,
what to us, was unusually bright 10pm daylight. As the match had progressed we
noticed the light had actually improved as the grey rain clouds lifted.
After the game I noticed that the official Throttur Twitter
account reported ‘Sometimes you are the dog and sometimes you are the tree!’
On the Saturday, myself and my father decided to give any
more live football a miss and we watched Wales vs. Northern Ireland in a pub.
Our pin badge collecting companion decided to try to get to a third division
game. Although he only managed to see the 10 minutes of the action he did
report that it looked like a training exercise on bobbly plastic pitch watched
by 20 people and a large brown dog.
