We are really getting into the swing of things with both sides of the top division underway and chaos happening everywhere in the league and the cup. I’m a little late with this weeks recap so there’s a lot to cover.
Last saturday had a cup game that has been somewhat overshadowed by some upsets that came after it, but this was a near-miss that went down to a penalty shoot-out. Fourth division Tindastóll were this close to beating Second Division Völsungur and even took a lead through half time and only had to hold out for 11 more minutes when the Húsavík side levelled. There was no breakthrough in Extra Time and the away team avoided further embarassment by winning on penalties
There were a pair of wild ones in the Men’s top division. Fram mounted a rapid-fire comeback against the shell-shocked reigning champions, with four goals in the span of 11 minutes. The final two goals were from Guðmundur Magnússon, who only came off the bench in the 67th minute.
KR and Valur were both featured last week for their draws, and neither is yet in the win column after a back-and-forth derby day for the ages. The name “Luke Rae” conjures for me the image of a long-distance woncer-strike, so I was a little confused to see him score from such close-range here. Jóhannes Kristinn Bjarnason did a decent impression of him with his first goal, slotting home an equaliser from just outside the box. The final spell was cast by more of the defensive errors that had already plagued the match, allowing Valur to retake the lead and then the Valur captain commiting a needless foul to allow Jóhannes Kristinn another chance to level, this time from the spot.
The first round of the Besta deild kvenna is in the books, and it wrote very different fortunes for some of the main contenders, hot off the heels of Cup Champs Valur beating league champs Breiðablik in the Meistarakeppni. I didn’t bother showing you a blank scoresheet but Valur were held to a scoreless draw by FH while Blikar looked even more dominant than anyone probably expected. The Sammy Smith hype is real, and the Massachusetts native scored the first two goals – a deftly placed finish and a ranged blast – both making it seem easy. Stjarnan were on the wrong end of this one, but I believe they have too many good players in the squad for this to be a sign of things to come.
Last year saw Víkingur surpass many peoples’ expectations – a top-four finish wasn’t actually a surprise to me, but moreso was their reaching 3rd place with a final day win over Þór/KA. Nobody wants to underestimate the Víks a second time, but thats perhaps at the expense of some respect owed to the Akureyri combo that they faced in the consecutive league match. Þór/KA not only looked dominant in their win, but have four different goal scorers and none of them are called Sandra María Jessen. Last season it took weeks before anyone other than their legendary captain found the net.
Back to the cup to round out the week. Víkingur are a huge name to be knocked out so early, and even at the hands of a Besta deild club it is a massive upset. ÍBV are recently promoted and this will surely buoy the spirits of the Islanders after losing to Víkingur in the season opener. Brace-scorer Omar Sowe has yet to score in the league this season, but could be due to cause serious problems this year following his signing from Leiknir where he netted 25 times across two second division campaigns.
The biggest upset of all was undoubtedly in Akranes, where the 2024 Fourth Division champions beat recently relegated Second DIvision Fylkir. It’s hard to win against anyone with fewer players, and the visitors managed to enter the second half with only 9 men. Hektor Bergmann Garðarsson used that advantage to equalise, and Þór Llorens Þórðarson bagged the late winner before Fylkir managed to lose another player.
That’s all for now, but here are the rest of the results:
