Icelandic Football
2011-07-24 - Fram Reykjavik vs IBV Vestmannaeyjar
A Sports Betting Pick by Cornholio
Icelandic top league - Round 12
Sunday July 24 2011, 18:00 (GMT)
The second half of the championship is underway. The transfer window has been open for some time now and the clubs have been rearanging their groups, it's good to keep that in mind.
Fram finally got a victory in the last round while IBV Vestmannaeyjar are losing their flight a bit.
This will be a clash between two sides who are in the opposite parts of the table. Still it's not at all certain that it will show in the game.
Fram Reykjavik
Fram's season has been horrible. Until the last round of the first half of the championship they hadn't won a single game, collecting only 3 points and scoring just 6 goals, 4 of those scored by the same player and 2 of those from penalty kicks.
Then, finally, in last round the victory came. Fram managed to beat another quite pathetic side, Vikingur, who have been equally bad and sit in the second last place. The game ended 0-1 to Fram after a horrible mistake by Vikingur's goalkeeper.
The win meant that Fram closed in on Vikingur and now have 6 points still at the bottom but only 1 point behind Vikingur. The problem for Fram is that the two other relegation candidates, Grindavik and Thor Akureyri both won their games meaning they are 5 points ahead of Fram.
Fram have been using the transfer window to streingthen their group. They have been using the money they received for selling Jon Gudni Fjoluson to Belgium. They have bought a wingman from League one, HK Kopavogur, and a Scottish striker, Steven Lennon, who scored the winning goal against Vikingur.
They also tried out another Scottish player but he was sent back and now they are currently trying out a former Man Utd reserve team captain, Sam Hewson. So it's clear that Fram will do everything they can to stay in the top league.
Fram's record is now 1-3-7, 7:15. All season long specialists have said that Fram is playing allright but they just seem so unlucky. Whatever is said the stats speak for themselves. The main reason for their bed position is their extreme lack of goalscoring. Thing is, that their defense is actually allright, conceding 15 goals. Only the top three in the league have conceded less than that.
At home Fram haven't been good, losing 4 and drawing 1. Still it's interesting to see that they have scored 5 of those 7 goals at home. Fram's fairly strong defense has meant they haven't been losing with large scorelines and actually only once losing with more than one goal (2-5 to Stjarnan).
Against the top teams Fram haven't been beaten easily. In the first they lost away to IBV 0-1 with the deciding goal coming in the last minute. Same scoreline was seen against Valur also with a very late goal and KR beat them 1-2 after Fram got the lead.
So Fram know very well that they have all changes of getting back on track and with their new players their offense should get quicker and more threatening.
IBV Vestmannaeyjar
IBV Vestmannaeyjar have made a solid start to the season. But after losing in last round to Grindavik they have become bit behind Valur and KR but fortunetly for IBV the two sides drawed in the same round.
IBV is out of the European league but only by the closest margin so they should be able to fully focus on the league where they currently sit in 3rd place with 19 points and an overall record of 6 1 3, 14:9. Their strength has been the defense conceding only 9 goals, the third least in the league and 6 less than the next teams. However, their goalscoring needs to pick up since 14 goals is not good enough. You need to go down to 9th place to find lesser goals scored.
IBV Vestmannaeyjar have sent their English midfielder, Bryan Hughes, back home since he didn't perform well enough. IBV have also been shuffleing a bit in the transfer window but nothing big has happened at the club. They are in search of a striker and it was thought that Gardar Gunnlaugsson was adding to their group but now this seems not going to happen.
IBV aren't as strong on the road as they are at home. While having an impressive record of 4 1 1 at home they are only 2 0 2 away but with a scoreline of 4:4 compared to 10:5 at home. It's interesting that IBV's away losses came against two of the relegation candidates, Thor Akureyri and Grindavik. Now they face the bottom team and will most certainly try to break that trend.
It must be kept in mind that even though IBV haven't scored too much, last round's game against Grindavik was the first game in the league IBV didn't score in. They will surely use the game against bottom placed Fram to get straight back on a winning streak.
Head to head
This is only the third season in recent years the two sides are in the same league. IBV won at home 1-0 back in may and also did so at home last season while Fram won their home game 2-0. Same scoreline was seen in Fram home game in 2009 while a 1-1 draw was the result at IBV.
The Betting Verdict
This clash is very interesting and quite tricky to read into. With Fram finally getting their first victory and their new Scottish striker scoring in his first game it doesn't seem unlikely at all that IBV will have a really tough time.
Looking at recent years' stats it's almost certain that Fram needs at least 3 more victories if they are to stay among the best and this really seems like their chance to get another win.
IBV have some trouble scoring and Fram have a fairly strong defense. On the other hand, IBV's defense is even stronger and it will be interesting to see if Fram's new quick players will be able to give it some trouble.
I don't expect many goals in this game and I think there could be a good value in picking Fram to win here. So you could say that I'm going against the odds here but I'm going to go for it and put Fram as the favorites here.
BEST BETTING TIP :
Main bet :Take Fram to win at a tasty 2.90 (Bet365)
Side bet
Consider Under 2.5 Goals @ 2.10 (Bet365)
Long shot
With all of the above said why not put tiny stakes on a correct score ... perhaps Fram to win 2-0 at a huge 17.00 (Paddy Power)
