{"id":1146,"date":"2016-06-24T18:32:47","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T18:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/?p=1146"},"modified":"2016-06-28T18:36:02","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T18:36:02","slug":"6-24-16-ice-breakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/6-24-16-ice-breakers\/","title":{"rendered":"6.24.16 Ice Breakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are no words to describe it. At least, not in the English language.<\/p>\n

But here’s some context. A generation ago, the tiny country of Iceland – population 330,000 – made a decision to build numerous indoor soccer facilities so that their kids could train through the long Arctic winter. This led to the development of several world-class players, and a national team with enough talent to compete in European competition. In 2014 and 2015, Iceland compiled an international record of 6-2-2, including twice defeating the mighty Dutch team, and qualified to compete in this summer’s Euro 2016 tournament.<\/p>\n

There, on June 14, in the first game of group play, Iceland’s defense stymied Portugal so completely that the great Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo bitterly accused the Icelanders of having a “small mentality.” But the defensive tactics worked and Iceland ground out a 1-1 draw. Then, on June 18, Iceland earned a second 1-1 draw, this time against Hungary. And then, on June 22, in the final game of group competition, Iceland and Austria had played for 90 minutes, and again the score was 1-1. Which meant that, having earned three draws, Iceland would place third in the group – behind Portugal – and would qualify for the knock-out rounds.<\/p>\n

But…then…there were still a few minutes of extra-time left…and if Iceland could score once more and defeat Austria 2-1…they would earn their first-ever international tournament victory…and leapfrog mighty Portugal into second place…and they had the ball in their own end…but had a sudden chance to break forward…and three players decided to sprint the length of the field…<\/p>\n

And then…the world found out what it sounds like when an Icelandic soccer commentator gives himself up to complete and total joy:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/soccer\/news\/look-listen-iceland-announcer-loses-his-freaking-mind-after-winning-goal-at-euro<\/a>\"Iceland<\/a><\/p>\n

Next Monday, Iceland will meet England in the round of 16. Hold your ears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are no words to describe it. At least, not in the English language. But here’s some context. A generation ago, the tiny country of Iceland – population 330,000 – made a decision to build numerous indoor soccer facilities so that their kids could train through the long Arctic winter.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1506],"tags":[1549,395,1550,1548,1137],"class_list":["post-1146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1506","tag-austria","tag-england","tag-euro","tag-iceland","tag-soccer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1148,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions\/1148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}