Iceland in the World Cup 2018
The history
The first official match of the Icelandic team was against Denmark in July 1946, we lost that game. Let’s go further ahead in time to the year 2012. Iceland was then number 131 at the FIFA list of the worlds football national teams. We participated in the European Cup in 2012 but did not qualify. In 2014 Iceland participated in the World Cup qualifier and we did qualify to the playoffs where we lost against Croatia.
For the European Cup in 2016 we placed second in our group and qualified for the finals. This was the first time in history Iceland had a team in such a major tournament and obviously extremely excited and proud. The team surprised everyone and went all the way to quarter-finals, winning Austria and making a tie against Portugal and Hungary, then winning England in the stage of elimination. We then met France for quarter finals and lost that game 5–2, it’s always disappointing to lose a game but I think the Icelandic nation has never been this proud before and we celebrated this result in this tournament like a big victory for Iceland, even after all the French fans had left the stadium long before, the Icelandic fans were still cheering for their team hours after the game ended.
In March 2018 Iceland was up to number 18 on the FIFA list of the worlds football national teams, jumping 113 places in only 6 years and soon became the favourite national team for many in the whole world. Our ranking now (June 2018) is 22.
Next up for our incredible national team is the World Cup, for the first time in history.
We are in group D with Argentina, Croatia and Nigeria, it’s a tough one! Our first game is against Argentina on June 16th.
The Coach
The current coach of the male Icelandic national team, Heimir Hallgrímsson, is born and raised in the tiny island, Vestmannaeyjar. In his hometown he is known as the friendly dentist who is now just taking a short vacation to participate in the World Cup, but no big deal right?
Along his side in the European Cup he had Lars Lagerbäck as the main coach, they did this good as a team and we fully believe that Heimir will do great things with the team now! So far he has managed the team to the World Cup which is a good start.
The Fans
We have, like many other teams, a supporters group. Ours name is Tólfan (The Twelve), meaning the 12th man on the field. This group was formed in 2007 by a group of guys that had football as their main interest. They thought that the Icelandic national teams needed a group of people that supported them no matter what, and a group who gives the team inspiration to keep on going. Tólfan is singing and chanting throughout the whole game to make their team and the opponent know that the twelfth man on the field is here!
While participating in the European Cup in 2016 held in France, there were about 30.000 Icelanders that purchased tickets for any of the matches, just to give you an example of what kind of number this is to us. 30.000 people is around 10% of our country’s population. Those who did not manage to get tickets to France they were either at home in front of the TV or gathered in downtown Reykjavik to watch the matches on a big screen in our so called “Fan Zone”.
When the team was coming home from France after the European Cup, thousands of Icelanders, including me, came together to welcome them back home after their incredible performance in the EURO cup and of course we did the “HÚH” Viking chant with our captain Aron Einar as the leader, whole Europe must have heard this happen. WOW we were so prod and we still are! Check out the video below :)
Check out how many got together to welcome the guys home!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JdpRWG3IJ0
And learn the Viking chant here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ_fh_Ks9QY
Now we say good luck guys in the WORLD CUP! I still cannot believe this is happening, feels like a dream. But this is happening and let’s all say “HÚH” and GO ICELAND!
