As a matchup between 3rd and 2nd place, this was a real 6-pointer for the teams. As expected the early going was fairly even while both team tried to settle into things and the defences were sturdy. In particular each team had one centre half that was standing out – Dominique Bond-Flasza for Fram and Rakel Lóa for Grótta – as they showed great judgment when stepping up from the back line to play stopper on potentially dangerous passes and runs.

One of those balls finally got through, floating at waist-height and in no-mans-land between the Grótta keeper and a defender-attacker comno tied at the hip, the trio’s intervention had it land at the feet of an open Mackenzie Smith who put the ball in the net with the keeper on the floor but still some bodies to miss in the path of the shot.

Rebekka Sif, born 2009, was industrious throughout the game for the visitors. As you might expect for someone her age she was out-muscled a few times by the bigger Fram players and they were able to use that advantage to win the ball fairly at times, but increasingly as the first half went on Rebekka was able to draw fouls. When left unimpeded she was dangerous and her long-range effort was due to dip right under the crossbar until Alia Skinner tipped it over.

She also took the resulting corner, high and aimed at the back post but never more than a few yards from the GOAL-line. It fell to Aufi Arnars to poke home from inside a very crowded 6-yard box where nobody had much space to move reactively.

After this equaliser, the defences were largely able to restrict their opponents to long-range efforts, most of them off target. Alda Ólafs changed this trend when she made space from her marker fairly wide and outside the penalty area, receiving the ball and taking it down to the by-line before fizzing it across the goal for Sara Svanhildur to tap it in.

The scorer of the second Fram goal was lucky not to be sent off soon after, appearing to kick out at a Grótta player while both were on the floor following a tangle. A teammate actually had to pull her away before the referee brandished only a yellow card. Her subsequent foul on rebekka Sif moments later drew a similarly strange reaction from the referee, seeming to suggest that Sara needed to avoid losing her head, but she had already seemed to me to have calmed down and this foul was more from Rebekka’s skill than anything else.

Before half time could come for Grótta to regroup, a third Fram goal came by way of Murielle Tiernan, who deftly lobbed the keeper from mid-range. Fram had been the better side by the break, but it was perhaps more even than the scoreline suggested.

Some chippiness from both sides began to form in the second half but the period was more marked by some questionably called and uncalled fouls as the referee continued to have an abysmal outing, albeit going both ways. The other notable factor was chances that were snatched at at both ends. Grótta were still limited to poor long-range efforts and Fram could have made the scoreline look ridiculous had they capitalised on some mistakes at the back from Grótta.

Dominique continued to control everything from defence and it was another occasions of her stepping out from the back that lead to the final goal. Having won the ball in her won half, she made a charging run forward, which she continued after playing the ball out wide to Murielle, entering the box and drawing a defender to follow her which left Alda unmarked for Murielle to find for the fourth goal.

Tinna Jónsdóttir came on for the final 15 minutes for Grótta and provided them a physical dimension going forward that they had been missing, and she potentially could have had a greater impact given more time.

With time winding down, Alda was denied the most clear penalty I’ve ever seen not given, as the keeper clearly impeded her while clamouring for the ball at her feet, which was able to run far enough for a defender to clear. Luckily this didn’t really impact the final result, but was another example of the horrendous performance from the referee.

The match ended at 4-1, sending Fram above Grótta and confirming the league title for FHL. Probably a fair result, though Maybe a sending off in the first half would have swung things for the away team. But with 11 players each Grótta lacked enough cutting edge to score more and had a few too many errors, so that Fram didn’t even need to capitalise on all of them. Murielle Tiernan was announced on the video screen as the player of the match, and she had a good game, however the best on the pitch for me was Dominique Bond-Flasza who just dominated everything and everyone on the night. Rebekka Sif was the best Grótta player in this game, and she looks like an incredibly bright talent for the future.

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Into Thursday night’s fifth division match which was also another edition of the very real “Á Ársins” rivalry. These have tended to go the was of Árborg in the short history of the derby, but this one was going the way of the Ásvellir club for a while.

Both sides started out struggling to find a footing in the wind and intermittent rain, and they lacked patience in build-up play, resulting in multiple crosses made to nobody. Árborg had the first chance and it came out of nowhere as the “shot” from great distance cannoned off the post . There’s a good chance it wasn’t even intended as a shot though, but a hopefuly ball forward that was overhit. Either way the Goalkeeper quickly knew he was helpless to stop it had it gone in.

KÁ were the first team to have an opportunity that was definitely intentional. Bjarki Sigurjónsson was put through on goal but had little time to pick out his shot with Stefán Blær rushing out of his goal well and making a good save from what had become close range.

Kristinn Ásgeir for Árborg was moving the ball well at his feet to make space for shots, but they were only from long-range, and most of his sides chances seemed to be ending similarly. The best of them was tipped over by Arnaldur Karl at full stretch, who made some decent stops in the half and looked solid.

Bjarki Sigurjóns was put through again and had more time to decide what to do with it on this occasion. For a moment it looked like he may have taken one touch too many but the shot that came was powerful and aimed at the near top corner leaving the keeper helpless to stop it.

The second half though would see all momentum shift towards Árborg, especially once they had an equaliser. That came when Elvar Orri was through on goal in a similar position to his opposite #9 in Bjarki when he scored, however he put it across the goal into the opposite corner. Árborg were then able to play with renewed confidence and matched the speed of their attacks with much more poise than they had possessed before the break.

KÁ’s best chance of the half was a low drive from distance by Rómeó Máni which was met once again by the outstretched fingertips of Stefán Blær.

In a scene appearing the opposite of the match I saw the day before, the winning goal was borne from a misjudged attempt by a KÁ defender to step up, giving Árborg the chance to cross the ball deep to Elvar Orri at the far post who once again put it across the goal, only this time it was for substitute Andrés Karl to convert the contested tap-in.

The hosts looked brighter in the final 5 minutes than they had all second half, having made a double substitution, but the closest they came to scoring was half-decent penalty shout from a hard shot possibly hitting the elbow of a defender, which was tucked in front of his body.

A somewhat bitter pill for KÁ after leading, but Árborg are a good side and the win lifts them to 2nd place, just ahead of Ýmir who only managed to draw with Skallgrímur two days before. The best player for home and away team may have been the keepers, Arnaldur Karl and Stefán Blær, but it could also be the #9’s. Bjarki Sigurjóns was a lot more effective in the first half, while Elvar Orri is my pick for best player in this one due to his goal and an assist.

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To avoid this post getting a bit long in the tooth, I’m going to combine both the games that I watched on my Laugardagur (Saturday) in Laugardalur.

Gunnlaugur Fannar Guðmundsson might consider himself very lucky. In addition to his first yellow possibly being something I could see being a red card – I though he lead with the elbow while jumping into the back of his opponent – he didn’t seem to ease off the challenges and could have definitely been booked again after fouling on the edge of the penalty area. His only punishment came just before that though, as his poor backpass was capitalised on by Liam Daði Jeffs who rounded the keeper to finish the chance. The Keflavík keeper was injured in his attempt to make the save, having also been hurt previously in the game, and had to go off in what would actually be the first of two goalkeeper substitutions I’d see that day.

Keflavík came out of the break the better side and found their first equaliser of the day after Axel Ingi rounded a defender and thumped the ball home.

Þróttur were pretty flat from that goal up to around the hour mark, when the biting crosswind had a direct and then indirect impact. The hosts won a corner and the wind carried it straight up and then out of play short of even reaching the goal. This lead to them taking the next corner short, which paid off and the eventual cross from further back was nodded home by Emil Skúli.

The visitors were able to equalise once again, and quite late on, this time it was a poor pass from the home team goalkeeper which gifted Keflavík with possession and Mihael Mladen put it away.

The winner would come for Þróttur in the fourth minute of stoppage time, as they managed to get the ball out wide and the cross was bundled into the net by Sigurður Steinar as he tumbled with a defender.

The game next door was a little more straightforward as one team dominated, though I don’t have nearly such elaborate notes on this one due to the wind chilling my hands beyond their ability to type on my phone.

Helgi Hrannar was continuously finding space for Hörður down the left side and was rewarded for his enterprise there with the opening goal. Isaac Kwateng got the skating club back level soon after though, just about beating the keeper to the ball, though this would be one of the last times SR really looked particularly dangerous.

The lead was restored when Helgi Hrannar got his second goal and there was no looking back once Sigurður Arnar just before the end of a half where he had been fairly quiet up till then.

The crowd had ballooned from the 3 that were there by kickoff time to more than 30 by the start of the second half, and 10 minutes later Sigurður Arnar began his effort to balloon the score also, adding his second and completing the hat-trick within minutes of each other.

Hörður really could have added more with over half an hour to go but things started to slow down and substitutions (including the Hörður keeper) were made with the game in hand and it in mind that this was the final game of the season with both teams short of the playoffs. A penalty was won for the Westfjords club later on, and I was surprised to see Helgi hrannar not given his chance to get a hat-trick of his own. Instead the imposing centre half Gabríel Heiðberg was the taker, and he launched a rocket over the crossbar. I only mention his miss while using his name because he had had a very solid game up till then so it was a shame to leave it with this black mark.

All in all, the windy day next to the national stadium had some exciting and high quality football, some of it paid for and some of it free to enter. The best performers from my day were probably all goal scorers from the winning sides: Liam Daði Jeffs was dangerous the whole time he was on the field but was substituted in the second half, Sigurður Arnar can’t be belittled for a hat-trick being scored even with a slow start, but Helgi hrannar might be my top pick for having stretched the SR defence beyond it’s capabilities when the game was still in the balance.

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Plenty of other exciting and important results this week, but I’m keeping the match reports to games I attended this week, since those are longer than they’ll be usually. Here are the rest of the results anyway: