The Jul of Spain

AS the headline goes, if there ever was a universally loved national football team, it would surely be Iceland. And their manager, Heimir Hallgrimsson, 50, seems happy in that role: he is a friendly man with a permanently huge, white smile.

Teeth and football are both crucial in his life. A dentist by training (“I still practice,” he says), Hallgrimsson has managed to extend Iceland’s miracle even after they rose to global fame with their performance at Euro 2016. The hype around football in Iceland increased after that tournament, he admits.

“Now it is everything it should be: football mania in Iceland,” Hallgrimsson told dpa in an interview.

Q: How did you start your coaching career?

Hallgrimsson: I started when I was with our own team, with our own playing style and by playing a great game.

Q: Do you think there is too little talk about Iran and Morocco, the other two teams in the group? Could they be more dangerous than people think?

Lopetegui: Within the team, we talk a lot about them. Iran are by far the best team in Asia over the past six years. At the last World Cup, Argentina had great trouble to beat them. They have already had the same manager (Carlos Queiroz) for seven years. They will be a really difficult team. And Morocco are quite similar. They have great individual talent, particularly the current generation. We are facing the European champions, the best team in Asia and the best team in Africa.

Q: Will this be the most balanced World Cup in recent times?

Lopetegui: All World Cups are balanced. This will be a very balanced World Cup because teams get to such tournaments better prepared all the time. All national teams. That evolution and the tournament’s format reduce the distance between teams. I think we will watch very good football. With the level of players and teams that we will have in Russia, we will definitely watch top-level football.

Q: How valuable was the 6-1 win against Argentina with an eye on the World Cup?

Lopetegui: No, no, that is already in the past. Whatever has happened already is in the past. The past is always useful to learn, to see what you have done well, what you need to improve, and to forget quickly and prepare what comes next. I think we are very clear about that. 17 years old, so I have been coaching for a quite a long time. When I started, I coached youth teams, for 10- to 15-yearolds.

Then I coached the women’s team for five years, and after that I went to the senior men’s team. So I have a wide foundation for coaching. I started very early because there was a guy from Poland coaching in my own country that I really admire, and he gave me an interest in coaching.

Q: What changed in Iceland after your success at Euro 2016? Are your fans more excited?

Hallgrimsson: Yes, of course the interest went up after the Euros, but normally there is huge interest in football in Iceland. It is the most interesting sport, the one most people do. But, of course and naturally, after the Euros it went up and now it is

We have tried to make the most of the games we have played, the recent friendlies, to keep growing and to keep consolidating various issues, and now the score has no relevance whatsoever for what might happen in Russia.

In Russia, games will start 0-0 and we will need to win them on the pitch, against whoever our rivals and not based on what we have done previously.

Q: Can Argentina recover from that blow?

Lopetegui: Without a doubt. Just like we will draw our conclusions, Argentina will draw theirs and they will probably be positive. I have no doubt that Argentina will be one of the greatest teams at the World Cup. No doubt whatsoever.

Q: Against Argentina, Iago Aspas’ goal came off a 70m kick from David de Gea. Are Spain more than just tiki-taka?

Lopetegui: Defining tiki-taka is very, very simple. At the end of the day, there are loads of issues that affect football. Teams need to handle play, improve and grow. And the more complete a team is and the greater its ability, the better team it will be. We obviously try to evolve and grow and try not to disregard any strengths we might boost as a team.

Q: At one point, Germany modeled their efforts on Spain. What can Spain now copy from Germany?

Lopetegui: I don’t think Germany copied Spain. What Germany did was to evolve, grow and become an extraordinary team at all levels, all of them. But not to copy anyone. Imitations don’t work.

You need to grow, and I think Germany attained a fantastic evolution of their own players, everything it should be: football crazy in Iceland.

Q: What are Iceland capable of doing at the World Cup?

Hallgrimsson: We will see. We hope we can compete for advancing from the group, and we believe we can.

Of course, there are good teams in our group, Argentina, Croatia and Nigeria. We will see what happens in June.

Q: With 330,000 people, Iceland is the smallest country ever at a World Cup. Brazil has a population of more than 200 million, Germany has 80 million... How can you explain that?

Hallgrimsson: On the pitch there are only 11 players. I think we can have a lot of explanations about a lot of things. It depends on who you talk to. If of their sense of play, respecting the conditions Germany have always had. The result is what we have seen.

An extraordinary team, with great ability as a group, with great individual ability and also with different ways to approach games tactically.

All that wealth was also achieved under a manager who has been at the helm for a really long time. (Jurgen) Klinsmann started it, Low followed… Low has managed to ensure that the feeling you get whenever you watch Germany is that they are a very good football team.

Q: Low has been with the German national team for over a decade. Would you like to develop a project like that?

Lopetegui: I think that continuity in any project is something that all managers want, because that is obviously the way to consolidate lots of concepts and to evolve them. Even more so with a national team, because you have very little time to interact with the lads. So you need to make the most of that reduced interaction, and having more time will give you more options. I think Germany deserve what they are achieving.

Q: Do you miss coaching a club and the daily work that entails?

Lopetegui: A national team manager also does daily work. Many people don’t know that, because it is different. At the end of the day, a manager’s job is also to coach and prepare teams to win.

Your interventions are less frequent, but they are a lot more intense.

A club manager’s task, with matches every three days, is amazing. But so is a national team manager’s task, when he is lucky enough to qualify for a World Cup, as in this case. – dpa you talk to a psychologist or someone else, he will tell you one explanation.

If you talk to a coach, he will give you another explanation. But, in the end, it is all about the players. If you do not have good players, you will never succeed in football. It is the easiest answer to his question. We can talk about it for a long time and it depends on who you talk to.

Q: Iceland fans are the most popular fans in the world. Why?

Hallgrimsson: I hope they can show off in Russia this summer. At least a couple of them are coming.

They really enjoy themselves, they really support us, wholeheartedly. Our connection between the players and the staff and the coaches and our fans is probably the closest in the world. And this is one of the benefits of being so few, because we know each other quite well.

All of our friends are in the stands. We know everything about each other, and you can feel the support comes from the heart.

Q: Your first match is against Argentina. How do you picture it?

Hallgrimsson: It’s going to be big. Our first match at the Euro was against Portugal. It was a draw, and they ended the tournament with the trophy.

Now we have our first game against Argentina. Hopefully we can have a draw and they will be world champions. We expect a big game against Argentina and hopefully we will be prepared. Our team is quite familiar with big games.

Q: How can a team stop a player like Lionel Messi?

Hallgrimsson: You will get to see that on June 19. – dpa