Iceland, to show the world Viking soccer!
One,
the national team
Structure and current status
The small Nordic nation of Iceland, which began its rise to prominence four years ago, has been as far removed from major tournaments as any other soccer underdog in the past. When they started to develop soccer in 2000, they were naturally later than many European countries in modernizing their game, but in an era when the whole world is transforming into a 4-3-3, the Icelanders continue to stick to the classical style of soccer with long passes, long range shots, and physical jostling.
This kind of Icelandic soccer is obviously just more outdated, but when the whole Icelandic team's level is improving, this kind of classical soccer, against a lot of four-three-three teams with insufficient completion, but can retain their own characteristics and strength, and do not lose or even win in the engagement.
And the final show of results is in 2016
European championship
Iceland drew with Portugal in the group stage, crushed England in the round of 16, and scored two goals against France in the last eight without any luck. Iceland has entered the league of European powerhouses, and its fighting ability is frightening to all countries.
II. Analysis of team formations
To put it simply, Iceland still tends to play the classical 4-4-2 or change into a 4-5 formation, but their overall level of connection is very high, and the part that really improves is the pre-judgement of the ball and the game situation. Iceland's real strength lies in the psychological level, which is also known as the IQ of the stadium by fans, and the Icelandic people are united and have no individualism, and the team is really formed into an integrated whole.
At the center of the offensive line is Gylfi Sigurdsson, who is in his prime at the age of 28, and back in 2012 he was in the
England Premier Soccer League
Tottenham Hotspur (city in France)
The two wings are Gudmundsson and Bjarnason, who are Iceland's powerful attackers on the right and balanced midfielders on the left.
The most important barrier in defense is the captain's back Gunnarsson, whose way of playing is very tough, very solid in front of the center back to form a wall of defense, making it difficult for opponents to break into the penalty area, and his position and sense of support is also perfect, as the captain, he is also very competent leadership of the whole team, Iceland's game is never a one-sided suppression, and very often stalemate or even a crisis situation is also quite a lot! However, Gunnarsson has always been able to lead the team to maintain a stable rhythm of attack and defense, which has been the key to Iceland's excellent performance in the past few years.
The Icelandic team is in fact playing classical soccer, in the defensive end to block the opponent's breakthrough routes with a tightly packed position, classical soccer's four defenders converted into a modern soccer point of view, that is, the four center backs will be discharged in the backline only to do the defense of the soccer, in the defensive end of the interception, to steal back the ball and then direct long pass delivery across the half, directly in the 25-yard box, a shot or to the side of the road, so that the side of the road directly into the central penalty area, then the central striker to grab a point or a charge, then the midfield and then back in to supplement the goal! The ball is then played into the center of the field, where the center striker takes a shot or a cross, and the center midfielder steps in to make up the shot.
This style of play will normally be in an extremely unfavorable situation when facing the modern 4-3-3 ball control formation, because as long as the defense fails to efficiently intercept the ball back to start the long pass, it will evolve into the opponent's high ball control ability will be all the way to suppress the whole game, and counterattacks will be few and far between.
But the Icelanders' height and physique is particularly strong, the whole starting lineup except Gunnarsson are all over 180cm, and the average is almost 185, coupled with the team's excellent tacit understanding of the defensive position, in fact, it can be efficient to complete the defense, and then the hardworking Icelanders are able to run back and forth non-stop throughout the whole game to insert the attack, and there are always a large number of players rushing up to follow up when the long passes are being made, and the entire 90 minutes of non-stop impact must be done in order to play this kind of classical football against the modern world. The Icelanders were able to run back and forth all game long, and when they made long passes, there were always a lot of players coming up to follow up, and the whole 90 minutes were non-stop impact.
III. Key players
Aron Gunnarsson (Gunnarsson)
As the captain of the back waist, Gunnarsson's job couldn't be simpler, to steal the opponent or with the defenders, and as soon as possible to get out of the situation to pass the ball forward to confirm the position of the opponent's midfield to follow up on the pressure, to make a distribution of the ball or a long-distance shot, Gunnarsson's style of play is also a very classical back waist, the key lies in the fact that he does this work very well and without error, the opponent's shots and breakthroughs suppressed the number of times converted into their own attacking opportunities to increase the number of natural advantages. The key is that he does this job well and without mistakes, suppressing the number of shots and breakaways from the opponents and increasing the number of chances to convert into offense for the team, which naturally gives the team an advantage, and his grenade kicks from outside the box are also a masterpiece.
Gunnarsson, with his bearded face, is a conspicuous player in the Icelandic lineup, a typical Nordic man but with a very gentle personality, and one of his very famous shots was in the 2016
European championship
Immediately after the draw with Portugal, he transformed from Iceland's captain to a fan, chasing after the
Cairo
To exchange jerseys, I'm sure many fans remember this image.
