Bookshelf: Against the Elements (Chapter 2)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Against the Elements: The Eruption of Icelandic Football (Matt McGinn)

Chapter 2: From Gravel to Grass

McGinn recounts a cliff notes version of Iceland's soccer history than spans from 1899-2013:

1899: Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur (KR) is the first club formed in Iceland

1912: The inaugural league championship

1922: Edinburgh Services Club tour visits the island and plays five games against local clubs 

1939: Islington Corinthians plays against an Iceland XI in Reykjavík

1940: The British invaded and occupied the island due to its strategic value in the North Atlantic

1941: American troops join British troops to total 30,000 troops (or 25% of Iceland's population)

1940s: Troops from at least a dozen well-known British clubs play in regular games

1946: A team of Icelandic players travel to Great Britain to play in five friendlies

1946: Iceland competes in its inaugural FIFA-sanctioned game, a 3-0 loss to Denmark

1948: Iceland wins its first official game, a 2-0 win over Finland

1951: Iceland defeats 1950 World Cup semifinalist Sweden 4-3

1964: KR is the first Icelandic club to compete in a European competition, a 5-0 home loss to Liverpool

1967: Iceland loses 14-2 to Denmark, a result described as the "nadir" of Icelandic soccer

1977: Iceland wins its first World Cup qualifier, a 1-0 win over Northern Ireland

1984: Ásgeir Sigurvinnson wins the Bundesliga with Stuttgart and is one of the league's best players

1992: No longer "goal-difference fodder," Iceland fields a competitive team in 1992 Euros qualifying

1994: Iceland earns a credible 8 points in 8 games in qualifying for the 1994 World Cup

1996 + 1998: Iceland struggles in qualifying stages for the 1996 Euros and 1998 World Cup

2000: Iceland fails to qualify for the 2000 Euros, despite being unbeaten in their first six qualifiers

2004: Iceland narrowly misses out on the 2004 Euros, missing the playoffs by just a single point

2008: An unsuccessful and uneven attempt to qualify for the 2008 Euros

2013: Iceland lost to Croatia in a playoff with a berth in the 2014 World Cup on the line