Even If You Don’t Like Football, You’ll Want To See Iceland in the World Cup!
June 2018
Unless you’ve been living on another planet, you’ll have noticed that football’s World Cup has started.
I’m NOT a football (soccer) fan – but I have to admit I do admire the skill of the players when I see clips on the news.
I’m sure one of the big teams will win – but what about Iceland in the World Cup?
Iceland is a sparsely-populated island (most small cities have more people than the country). But they’ve invested heavily in community football, and it’s paid off.
The team – certainly the underdogs in the competition – have great heart! They may not be the best team, but they’re good enough to qualify.
Iceland’s fans have a deep bond with their team. The team is nicknamed Strákarnir Okkar, or “Our Boys,” and fans bought 27,000 tickets to the 2016 Euro, which is 8 percent of the country’s population (wow!).
It’s a real underdog or Cinderella story – so you might just want to watch Iceland in the World Cup.
And if you listen, you’ll hear the Viking Clap – see the original article for a video of it.
Here’s the original article:
With the 2018 World Cup about to begin, expectations are high for the usual teams, like Brazil and Germany. (Sorry, Spain.) But one team, ranked No. 22 by FIFA, is getting more than its fair share of attention: Iceland.
Like every great underdog story, Iceland’s improbable run has less to do with sports and everything to do with team work, heart and a certain degree of surprise.
With a population of around 334,000 — Honolulu’s population is about 350,000 for comparison’s sake — Iceland is the smallest country to ever qualify for the World Cup, but it may also be one of the countries most dedicated to pushing soccer in recent years, making huge investments in the sport on a national and local level.
And that investment is paying off. Even before making it to the World Cup, Iceland stunned soccer fans in 2016 during the UEFA Euro tournament by knocking out England and going on to the quarterfinals. England’s manager, Roy Hodgson, resigned following the defeat.
Read the rest here: https://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/iceland-soccer-world-cup-underdog
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Warm regards,
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