I find it difficult sometimes to talk about the First Division when so many other sources can say it better and more promptly, so I’m trying a more particular tact when looking at the first round of matches from Besta deild karla.
First though we had some more Second Round matches from the men’s Milk Cup. Games that end with a result after 90 minutes aren’t inherently less interesting, but from the 13 second round matches so far, 8 of them were decided by a margin of 4 or more goals. Only a single match was decided in 90 minutes with a single goal margin.
So forgive me if my focus is on extra time and penalties. KFR were on the other side of a 3-2 scoreline in Round 1 and had a chance at an upset after scoring in the fifth minute of stoppage time. KÁ got the win though thanks to a Nikola Djuric brace and are rewarded with a rematch in Round 3 against KR, who they lost comfortably to in the cup last year, but did initially lead.
Úlfarnir don’t know who they will face in the next round yet, but the 2.deild club Víkingur Ólafsvík will be favourites against The Wolves’ 5.deild fellows Smári. The penalty shoot-out win was the first of the year, coming after neither side could break through in the second half or extra time.
So here’s my Besta deild coverage for this week; two more games that had the teams drawing at 90 minutes. My question is how these kinds of results affect these clubs as opposed to if they happened later in the season. Valur drop points on the other presumptive title contenders, but that only gives them more time to make up the miniscule difference while Víkingur and Breiðablik are more likely than Valur to rest on their laurels. For Vestri they gain a point that could be extremely valuable down the line. I don’t want to go too far into explaining my expectations for them when I have written more detail in a yet-to-be-published preview of the division, so you can just look forward to that.
The other drawing clubs are a couple that it’s safe to say have underwhelmed in recent campaigns. A season-opening win against what turns out to be a poor team, or a loss to a surprise contender, can set inaccurate expectations for what’s to come. This draw is more like dipping a toe in the water too briefly to get a sense of the temperature. KA and KR will be hoping for big improvement in 2025, but we will have to wait to see their true quality.
Here are the rest of the results since the last recap:
