The Iceland national football team was the big surprise at the 2016 European Championship and the 2018 World Cup. In an excellent book, a scientist examines how Iceland started a successful rise.
For years the game of the Icelandic national team was not to be seen. Like Andorra, Luxembourg and Malta, it was a laughing matter in Europe – all countries with few inhabitants and hardly any good footballers. But that hasn't been the case for some time now. Iceland, for example, surprisingly beat the Dutch national team 2-0 in October 2015. Orange had finished third at the World Cup the year before. The islanders rushed through and piled stunt upon stunt. The country qualified for the 2016 European Championship and also the 2018 World Cup. That was no luck. The former ugly duckling stood out with strong play. At the European Championship they even made it to the quarterfinals.
Lava and clay
How come? Matt McGinn looks for that answer in the book Against the elements. The eruption of Icelandic football. He works as a PhD student at the University of Nottingham. And that is noticeable. To explain the islanders' transformation, McGinn not only delves into football culture, but also cites many scientific studies and describes technological aid. This has made it a very interesting book.
But before we get into the science, let's dive into the facilities Iceland has for its footballers. To find out how Iceland has gotten so much better at football, you should especially look at the changes in the years leading up to its success. That's when the foundation was laid. It used to be played on solidified lava and clay. The icy wind whipped the players' cheeks. Fine for the toughness of the football players, but teach them technical and tactical ingenuity when your toes freeze and your ears almost blow off.
Go-getters
That is why football halls were built. These are a kind of large hangar, which somewhat resemble a hangar for airplanes. You can always train there, no matter how hard it snows and blows. In addition, a kind of football fields were constructed outside, which are half the size of normal football fields. They are heated via geothermal energy, a technique in which heat from the subsoil is cleverly used to keep the grass green. In total there are 333 fields. As a result, there is one field per 67 registered football players on the island.
These fields give the football players the opportunity to improve. McGinn refers to a 1993 study by Swedish professor Anders Ericsson (University of Florida) in which he shows that it takes ten thousand hours to become an expert at something. The football hangars and football pitches make that possible. In addition, Iceland professionalized the trainers, who were encouraged to obtain diplomas, which increased the level of the training.
But there is more. Mentality is just as important, McGinn shows. He mentions the word dugledur. It literally means something like solid and efficient. When a youth player makes a good move, the coaches don't say 'well done' or 'nice job'. No, they use this word dugledur. The trainer wants to say that you have achieved something by working hard and showing guts. So the mentality of go-getters.
Icelanders are go-getters out of necessity, because of the harsh landscape in which they grew up. Never give up, don't whine and work together was necessary for generations to survive. Research by former professional football player and psychologist Haukur Ingi Gudnason (University of Iceland) shows that Icelandic football players at the highest level are mentally strong and have these kinds of values.
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Madness
McGinn also cites the sociologist Vidar Halldorsson of the University of Iceland. He even calls the mentality “Icelandic madness.” It stands for a collective identity of sports teams on the island. It is based on the idea that players can achieve anything if they put in their full effort. This belief, which I think is a better word, can be seen as a symptom of the madness on the island, he argues.
These are all convincing arguments that McGinn substantiates well in his book. But then he does something that seems strange at first. He is going to refute all the arguments mentioned here. Really nice, those football pitches and football halls that allow you to kick a ball more often, but don't they undermine that much-praised mentality? Because you no longer have to persevere and play football with frozen toes to be able to play football. How do hangars and heated fields create a strong mentality? And nice those investigations into dugledur, but where is the conclusive proof that this is really a difference between brazilian and icelandic footballers?
Football on a fishing boat
So just when you think you have found explanations for Iceland's success, you start to have doubts. McGinn tries to capture the success with his investigations and many interviews. But when he writes down the explanations, he is really a scientist who emphasizes that more research needs to be done. That too is science:making arguments, testing them and looking for even better and more strongly substantiated explanations.
This leaves the reader a little confused. But that's okay. It is also nice that Icelandic success remains elusive. Before reading this book I knew very little about football in Iceland. In fact, it wasn't a topic I thought I'd enjoy reading a book on. But McGinn completely convinced me. He manages to show how many interesting sides there are to Icelandic football. He dives deep into the multifaceted football culture and mentality on the island. And then there are the beautiful atmosphere descriptions. For example, the author goes to watch football matches on a fishing boat, where the rough fishermen look at the Icelandic national team between work. It makes for one of the best football books I've ever read.