William Shakespeare wrote in Much Ado About Nothing that “comparisons are odorous”, but given that what would become the beautiful game was banned in his lifetime, Shakespeare probably didn’t know ball.* It was another William who would embrace comparisons in particular regarding football: Scotsman and Aston Villa director William McGregor invented the English Football League in 1888, which gave us our most complete way of comparing teams. League table don’t lie.

Neither William considered the sixth tier of Icelandic football though, which is two even-footed groups that only play against each other in the playoffs. So rather than trying to compare teams within each group, I will attempt to weigh up the differences and similarities between teams in the same position of each group. Here’s how the groups look going into August, with the changes since the end of June shown in red:

Both group leaders hold their position by a single point after grabbing 4 wins and a draw each. That form catapulted Álftanes past two of their challengers in the standings while Smári surpassed just one team despite 9 more goals and 4 fewer conceded than their opposite number.

Hafnir and BF 108 (still referred to by pre-rebrand name Mídas at some sources) are the teams reliquishing top spot in July. They both have a game in hand, though the group B side takes better form into August having won 3 and drawn 1, while Hafnir – who are the only undefeated side left in the country this season – won 1 and drew 3 in July.

Hörður might have had the best month of any team in 5kk in July. They matched the 13 points of the group leaders while also having the best defensive record in the division, conceding just 2 goals in their 5 games. If BF 108 beat KFR on the 9th then it is going to be a difficult task to reach the playoffs for the Ísafjörður side as they’ll be 6 points behind them with 3 games to go, one of which against Smári who have a 4 point advantage. Álafoss meanwhile have their destiny – and a game – much more in their own hands. Winning against Þorlákur on the 8th even potentially puts them top.

Úlfarnir are a team that refuse to draw games. They are almost definitely out of the playoff chase (a regression since they made it last year) but they somewhat salvaged their season in July, taking their win total from 3 to 7 with their single loss of the month being their 6th overall. KFR are 4th place in the other group and had about as average a month as is possible, beating the teams they’d be expected to beat and losing or drawing to those around them in the standings.

Both 5th place teams, Spyrnir and SR, went exatly nowhere in the table in July. They both gained 7 points, but the Easterners actually played 6 games while the skaters only played 4, with the discrepancy made up of a pair of losses. With SR having only 4 points more than Spyrnir this season, the difference in results isn’t the only explanation for their far superior goal difference. That difference of 16 goals is emblematic of the two groups, with the top 3 in Group B having a better tally there than any team in group A. The reason becomes obvious when you look at the goal difference for the teams in each division at the positions below 5th.

Samherjar are the only 6th-or-worse club to have a positive goal difference, and they were in 4th place before a dismal July. Below them, Léttir actually had a month equal to that of KFR and therefore better than many above them in both groups. Þorlákur have done fairly well as a brand new team in the league this year, but their 2 wins came early on in the season and they lost all 4 of their games in July. The three equivalently positioned teams in group B – Stokkseyri, Uppsveitir, Reynir – simply lose a lot of games and often by big margins. Stokkseyri actually outperformed their average in that regard in July, only conceding 12 goals from 5 games, but that would still have been second worse in group A.

Finally we reach the basement of each group. KM have 2 draws this year while Afríka haven’t won since 2020. Despite one team having a goal difference 20 worse than the other, KM would also have the second worse tally in Group B as well, and they’ve scored a similar number of goals. I’d love to know what it would take for either club to improve for next season, but it’s probably not something we are going to see happen in 2024.

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There were 41 games played across the groups in July, make up your own conclusions from the results, which you can find below:

*: I was being facetious about Shakespeare, although the game was very different back then he actually wrote about football multiple times.