As Iceland crushes Spain in the men’s handball semi-finals, the players and the country gets huge support for their effort for gold at the Olympics.
Here are some remarks made at Icenews and other media:
“I am one of those 310.000 proud Icelanders. You should also not forget that along the way we have also won the European champions Denmark, the world champions Germany and former Olympic champions Russia. The Vikings from Iceland showed their real face!”
“Here in Sweden we are very excited about Icelands victory in the semifinals. Sweden has no gold in these Olympics and personally I don’t think we’ll get one. But a goldmedal in handball for our brothers in Iceland certainly would ease our pain.”
“We (The proud Icelanders) DREW with Denmark. We leveled the score from a penalty line(7 meter) 2-4 seconds before end of game. BUT NOW WE’RE IN THE FINALS……….”
“We beat nations that are 130 times larger than we are.”
And at some of the major news media out there:
“Spain, bronze medallists in Sydney and Atlanta, were caught napping by an early onslaught from the Icelanders and never recovered against an opponent that has turned the tournament on its head with its giant-killing feats. ”
http://www.foxsports.com.au/beijing_olympics/story/0,27313,24227559-5016792,00.html
“Jeg har lige oplevet noget helt fantastisk. Ikke med Danmark i hovedrollen. Men med Island. Og det var tæt på at være lige så godt, som når det er Danmark.”
http://blog.tv2.dk/ulrik.jonsson/entry257934.html
“En af denne verdens mest geniale håndboldspillere nogensinde, islandske Olafur Stefansson, spillede fredag den lille vulkanø i OL-finalen, da han med en kreativitet af en helt anden verden strøede om sig med fabelagtige oplæg til sine hårdt arbejdende medspillere.”
http://www.dhf.dk/composite-2971.htm
ns Nyheter
Aftonbladet
Expressen
NRK
Portalen Faroe Islands
“It was a convincing display by the Icelandic team as they crushed Spain 36-30 in their semi-final.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/handball/7577813.stm
I am one of those displaced Icelanders who has been rooting on my countrymen from the comfort of my chair in the US. We have a pretty large group of Icelanders in the NYC area and we are all pulling for these gentlemen. Hopefully, we will be able to watch the match live.
Áfram Ísland!
Congratulations iceland on reaching the handball final. I was able to catch the game on the net (as there was no coverage of the handball last night in Australia) and thought that your guys did a brilliant job – it was definately more interesting than the AFL (Australian Rules) game that was shown on tv last night!
Good luck for the final!
James Shelton – Adelaide, Australia
I’m Spanish but I love Iceland and I’m very happy. Spain has won 15 medals and I want one gold for you.
Good luck. Tomorrow you’ll have a supporter in Madrid.
Iceland, Britain is behind you in your quest for gold. That being said, can we fish your waters please?
Congratulations Iceland ! Perhaps you missed a little experience to stay focused on the game this morning but you did a great job ! France have 200 times more inhabitants than you, and if we had 200 handball teams like yours, we would be invicible for years.
(PS : we could do the same reasoning in music for Iceland)
I am so happy that the Icelandic handball national team had the oppurtunity to play for the Gold.I wish they would of won.Silver is great and Now Icelandics have won 16 silver medals.Hallaluja sincerely Jacalyn