ICELAND READY TO WIN FRIENDS AS THEY MAKE WORLD CUP HISTORY
Icelandare ready to take the World Cupbystorm, with players looking forward to today’s World Cup debut against Argentina.
Iceland coach Heimir Hallgrímsson was all smile this week at he met the press, praising his team’s hosts and its first opponent, before disarmed his inquisitors by heading off the usual question about his day job. “I am still a dentist and I will never stop being a dentist,” he said.
Hallgrimsson acknowledged his coaching staff has a “headache” preparing to face Lionel Messi on Saturday in “the biggest game in the history of Icelandic football.”
He also knows the Nordic island of 330,000 people has global support from its fairytale run to the 2016 European Championship quarterfinals.
“It’s a pretty little nation and pretty people in general. You can’t but love us,”th eco achsa ida tapackedpress conference Friday at the Spartak Stadium.
A reporter from Colombia told Hallgrímsson and captain Aron Gunnarsson they had “many supporters” in his country and across South America.
“People like that such a sparsely pop ulatednat ion is int he World Cup ,” the coach said. “We feel it, not just from Colombia, but all over the world.”
If peace-loving Iceland really is every neutral’s favourite, it might be the only army it needs.
“We haven’t attacked anyone. We haven’t been at war with anyone,” Gunnarsson said, before citing a 1970s fisheries dispute with Britain. “We have only had the Cod War and nobody got hurt there.”
One obvious question that did get asked arises before every game involving Messi—how to stop the five-time world player of the year.
“I don’t have any magic formula,” Hallgrimsson said. “Everybody has tried everything against him and he always managed to score.”
“We have nothing to lose. We feel good,” said Gunnarsson, who will lead the famous post-game clapping ritual between fans and players.
Theso-called ‘Thunder clap’ helped define the team at Euro 2016 in France where Iceland stunned at its first tournament appearance.
“We went on adrenalin in everything we did,” said Hallgrimsson, who was assistant coach two years ago. “In all meanings of the word, we are [now] better prepared.”