Ingi Þór Steinþórsson, hier als coach van een Nationaal Jeugd Team van IJsland(Foto: Karfan.is)
PREVIEW NEDERLAND – IJSLAND
Q&A met de IJslandse coach Ingi Þór Steinþórsson
Vrijdag 26 november 2021 gaat voor de Orange Lions Mannen de FIBA WBC 2023 de eerste bal omhoog in de eerste (van mogelijk twee) Groepsfases van de Kwalificatie voor het Wereldkampioenschap. Fiba noemt dat WBC Qualifiers 2023 Round-1.
De eerste tegenstander in het eerste Window van drie keer twee wedstrijden, die eerste ronde is IJsland – zo op het eerste gezicht een ideale om op gang te komen – daarna volgen Powerhouses Italïe, in het tweede Window Rusland Uit en Thuis, en in het laatste Window moet Nederland naar IJsland en sluit af Thuis tegen Italië. De eerste drie worden samengevoegd met de top-3 van de groep Spanje, Noord-Macedonië, Georgië en Oekraïne, en nemen de onderlinge wedstrijdpunten mee in de groep die dan dus uit zes landen bestaat. Uiteindelijk plaatsen zich er van die zes drie voor het WK dat wordt gespeeld in Indonesië, de Filipijnen en Japan (via deze link kan je dit proces ook in een video(1 minuut) van FIBA bekijken.
Goed, IJsland dus als eerste horde die Nederland moet zien te nemen. Dat is een Must-win wedstrijd willen de Orange Lions zo lang mogelijk in de race blijven voor kwalificatie, maar IJsland is traditioneel een zeer lastige tegenstander voor Oranje; bloedfanatiek, ze geven nooit op, spelen vaak goed als team en hebben doorgaans de driepunter als sterk wapen. Toch zullen weinig mensen veel weten van het IJslandse Basketball, dat ondanks een zeer kleine bevolking de laatste jaren ongeveer dezelfde prestaties leverde als onze Oranje Basketballers.
Om het beeld van de Nederlandse Basketball-liefhebbers op het IJslandse Basketball wat te verbeteren, stelde ik een aantal vragen aan Ingi Þór Steinþórsson een coach die ik goed ken van vele toernooien en EK's met IJslandse MU18 en MU16-teams. Zo zag ik hem hij ooit de IJslandse MU16 in de Fiba MU-16 A-divisie coachen en nodigde hij me tijdens een MU18 B-divisie eens uit om op een rustdag een vriendschappelijke wedstrijd tegen Saoedi-Arabië deze naast hem op de bank te komen beleven. Een deel van de spelers van die MU18 speelt vrijdag in de Nationale Ploeg tegen Oranje.
Als club-coach was Ingi ooit de coach van Jason Dourissau voordat deze in Groningen voor Donar kwam spelen.
De antwoorden hieronder zijn in zijn eigen woorden in het Engels. Sommige cijfers zijn voor Nederlandse begrippen verbazingwekkend; zo verwacht hij dat meer dan een kwart van de IJslanders de Live op nationale TV uitgezonden wedstrijd zullen bekijken – ik vermoed dat bij Ziggo en NBB de vlag uitgaat als Nederland daar zelfs maar een beetje in de buurt komt – en telt de IJslandse Bond op een bevolking van iets meer dan 366.000 zielen iets meer dan 9.000 geregistreerde spelers. Zouden we deze cijfers naar rato tegen de Nederlandse bevolking afzetten dan zouden de NBB dus 428.000 leden moeten tellen en zouden er vrijdag zo'n 4.765.000 mensen af moeten stemmen op de ZiggoSport uitzending.
Zijn laatste nieuws is dat een van de beste IJslandse spelers – zo niet de beste(AD) – Haukur Pálsson(GF) geblesseerd is en niet zal spelen, net als Captain Hörður Axel Vilhjálmsson(PG). Dus lees vooral het hele interview (het is te vertalen via de translate-knop op deze Blog).
AART DEKKER
Hey Ingi,
Coming Friday both our National Men's Team kick of the 2023 World Cup Qualifiers with a game in Almere, The Netherlands, in what could be an exciting start of a potentially great 'Road to'. A nice reason to put up some questions about our National Basketball Prides?
We met each other a long time ago when I was scouting International Youth Basketball and you were coaching Icelandic National Youth Teams in quite some European Championships and Nordic Cup Tournaments. You know Iceland always was one of my favourites because I love your beautiful country, and because of the way Icelanders play, coach and live our great sport. What I like so much of 'the Iceland way'? Because your country has such a small population, is so far away from everything, and is often seen as an underdog, but is always putting up a fight, plays relentless with a 'never-quit' mentality and does so in an attractive, daring and up-tempo style. Icelandic teams are most often well coached, with often intelligent players too, and are often topping expectations. Never underestimate an Icelandic team!
I don't think many Dutch have seen much of Iceland Basketball, nor do I think many people really know a lot about it. And because a game is always more interesting when you known more about the opponent, I 'd like to ask you about your Basketball at Iceland, your National Team, how Dutch Basketball is seen in your country and what the expectations are for Friday and the Road beyond that.
Because of another bizar COVID19-peak also this game will be played without a crowd; a disappointment for everybody.
Question: can you sketch a short overview of Icelandic Basketball? What's the membership of your Federation? How many people play the game in total, and how are they split over categories Men, Women, seniors and youth? How many people are somehow involved somehow with Basketball? How does the sport rank in popularity compared with other sports?
Answer: In 2020, there were a total of 9030 registered basketball players in Iceland. Basketball has grown considerably over the last ten years, with a rise in the number of players and attention in the media.
A breakdown of the numbers from 2020 shows that we had just over 6100 male players and about 2900 female players. I have broken down the difference between genders and age in the table below.
|
Gender |
Age |
2020 |
|
Male |
0-12 |
2672 |
|
Male |
13-18 |
1730 |
|
Male |
19+ |
1757 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gender |
Age |
2020 |
|
Female |
0-12 |
1394 |
|
Female |
13-18 |
845 |
|
Female |
19-25 |
632 |
In general, basketball is probably the second biggest sport in Iceland, when we take everything into account. In terms of registered players, we are the fifth biggest. When we include the number of spectators, attention, and media coverage, basketball is now the second biggest sport in Iceland.
Question: can you also sketch the mission of the Federation? And how it is organized? What is the filosophy on Talent-development not only of players, but also of coaches, refs and so on?
Answer: Our Federation has the ambition to do the best for Icelandic basketball; we did great playing in two Eurobasket Tournaments with the Men in recent years, and I hope to see the team there sometime again. The Federation has good connection to FIBA after our former President Ólafur Rafnsson was president of FIBA Europe until he passed away way too soon. Our President today – Hannes Jonsson – is working hard for Icelandic Basketball, and our board is doing all they can so our National teams can compete on as high a level as possible.
We have been working with a good philosphy with our youth national teams and the future for Men´s National Team is bright; we have talented players coming out of our youth program. Coaches and Refs here in Iceland have a high ambition to do well, and are always willing to learn and add to their game. We have coaches who live basketball and sacrifice all their spare time to work hard with our youth players.
And for our Youth Program; it´s a mix of a good program with our youth national teams and coaches that were willing to practice a lot, setting a standard to run good program for our youth teams. We did not always partcipate in every possible European compition, but when we did not, we still practised a lot and used our opportunities well. Youth team clubs here in Iceland did a good job also; they went abroad too and played for example in the Scania Cup Tournaments with good results, and all volunteers and parents around all of basketball here have been amazing helping all the players to have those opportunities. We start with our players in program when they are 11 years old and we have solid program for them all the way to our Men´s team.
Question: how many clubs are there, and how does the League look like? Is there anything typical for Icelandic clubs?
Answer: We have on the men´s site 4 leagues with around 38 teams, 12 in the Top Leagur, 10 in 2nd divsion, 10 in 3rd division and 6 in 4th divsion. The level on our top league is continuously getting stronger, and players that do well here in our league are signing in the big leagues in Europe. The next step should be that Icelandic clubs start play in the Fiba Europe Cup again; I really hope the best teams will do that. On the Women's side we have a Top League with 8 teams and 2nd league with 11 teams.
Question: Iceland drew a lot of attention and respect in our country with the National Program for a Healthy Youth to take them away from drinking alcohol and using drugs as much as possible. Can you sketch that in brief? How did that program influence the development of the sport of Basketball?
Answer: The Government provided the money a little bit, but in order to have everything running smoothly, the Federation had to invest more of it's own. Our government understands how important it is for youth to stay in sport and are always trying to do better on supporting for them.
Question: How is Dutch Basketball – and more specifically our National Men's Team – seen in your country and your Basketball Community?
Answer: We have good respect for Dutch Basketball we have had some few Icelandic Players over there but that´s some years ago. Your National Youth Teams are strong with good height, something that we haven´t got a lot of. Icelandic people don´t know too much of Dutch Basketball because we don´t see it in TV. It´s more the coaches that are around our National Youth Teams and the Men that know all about it.
Question: What a lot of people here won't know is that your Men have played at EuroBasket more often in recent times than ours. I expect every Icelandic fan and insider to know that. How is this match-up seen; what are the expectations for this crucial game for both of us?
Answer: I think almost every Icelandic Basketball Fan was supporting our National team at Eurobasket, first in Berlin and then later in Helsinki. The team did good and there where a lot of other strong Basketball Nations that “should” have participated but weren´t. Our team has a great coach and the level of our players is good. We have finally have height on our team in Tryggvi Hlinason that we didn´t have when we participated on EuroBasket tournaments, but like I said earlier the future of our National team is good and we have players with big hearts for their National Team. I believe that the expectations for both teams are to leave each other behind in this group to qualify for next round.
Question: Are there things people here should know? Things like how many players on the Roster are playing abroad (or did earlier) and for what kind of clubs they play? How many went to College in the USA, and how many played in Europe as youngsters? What can we Dutch expect to see Friday? How about the coaching staff?
Answer: On our National Team today we have only five of our 12 men roaster playing abroad, but two of them – Martin Hermansson and Tryggvi Hlynason – play in the ACB in Spain. Six players of the team played in college in the US, of whom Jon Axel Gudmundsson played very well with Davidson. The rest of the players play here in the Top League which – like I mentioned before – is more competive than ever before. We are missing Haukur Pálsson – who played in the ACB last season – he´s injured, and so is our captain for last games Hörður Axel Vilhjálmsson. Still we show up with good and exciting team and we look forward to watching them play against you guys. We have three players on the roaster that have been with youth programs in Spain and Italy. Our coaching staff is good and our head coach Craig Pedersen has been with the team for more than 10 years now and he has done a very good job with his staff.
Iceland coach Craig Pedersen beams with pride(Foto: FIBA.basketball)
Question: How many people are expected to follow the game, live or postponed?
Answer: All basketball fans in Iceland will be able to watch the game on our national TV so they don´t have any excuse to skip the game. I would say 100.000 people will watch the game, but remember that we are 350.000 here in Iceland
Question: After the game Friday, your men travel on to Russia. How about that game?
Answer: Our team goes into all games to win, but Russia is very strong team and we are realistic about our chance against them. We might see players that played less minutes on Friday play more in that game.
Ingi Þór Steinþórsson hier met gust-Sigurdur-Bjorgvinsson, FIBA certifiede coaches (Foto: kki.is)
Bonus Question: I also always enjoyed watching Icelandic teams, and meeting with all of you guys, because it felt like you were a strong community, with a shared sense of purpose, and a lot of will to work all together. Was my feeling correct? And could you describe how it is to work in such a community? I think we here could use more of that..!
Answer: For a long time we had few coaches working together with the youth national teams and we made a very strong force. We achieved amazing results of having our MU16 and MU18 in the A-divisions, and later our MU20 also in the A-division. It's different now; we see more changes on coaches now from year to year.
Thanks Ingi!
I hope we get a enjoyable game on Friday!
Greetings,
AART DEKKER
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