Icelandic Football
2011-08-28 - Thor Akureyri vs Grindavik
A Sports Betting Pick by Cornholio
Football : Icelandic top league - Round 17
Sunday August 28 2011, Kickoff 17:00 (GMT)
This is a battle between two sides who are in the lowest part of the table. With so few rounds left every mistake down there can come close to being fatal. Grindavik will be up to a great challenge meeting Thor on their very strong home field in Akureyri.
Thor Akureyri (9th)
Thor’s first season in the top league in years has been more than acceptable. Sitting in 9th place with 17 points and an overall record of 5-2-9, 22:32, one more win would certainly secure their spot in the league next year.
However, after three home wins in a row, Thor lost the next four games, three in the league along with the cup final. They have been critisised a lot for not having any ambition of doing anything more than securing their spot in the league and doing so by getting good results at home but almost not showing up in the away games.
They seem to rest many of their key players when travelling and for instance their manager was abroad in the last round when his team visited FH Hafnarfjordur while one key player was suddenly on trial also abroad. People are saying that they are showing disrespect with this behaviour.
On the other hand, it’s hard to be very unhappy with Thor’s action and maybe these tactics are simply brilliant. After all they are 4 1 3 at home, a record that has kept them away from the relegation spots. However, their terrible away record of 1 1 6 has meant that they can be quite happy that teams like Vikingur and Fram have been so bad this season since they are eight and six points behind Thor respectively.
But, while losing three in a row, Fram haven’t lost in last three, gaining five points and thereby cutting Thor’s lead down to only six points. That might seem a lot with just six rounds to play but it means Thor can’t really afford to make many mistakes if Fram manage to keep their run going.
Thor’s main problem all season, along with their away record, has been their terrible defense. Conceding in all but two games their opponents have netted a total of 32 goals against them, the most in the league. However, Thor have had it pretty easy in scoring goals and have netted 22 of them. For example, IBV who are in the 2nd place have only scored four more goals. Thor is especially strong in set play and their opponents must be aware of that.
Their gameplay tends to be very physical and they normally let the opponent control the game counting on the counter attack and the set play; free-kicks and corners. But against Grindavik they might have to change their tactics since Grindavik aren’t really good enough to control the game and keep the ball.
Thor have scored 14 of their 22 goals at home and conceded 11 of the 32 goals. This shows even further how much stronger they are at home than on the road. Thor should have a great chance against Grindavik’s poor defense to get their scoring up again since they have only scored two goals in last three games. A win for Thor would be very important, pretty much securing them away from the drop zone, and also because they have a very tough game coming up when they visit 2nd placed IBV Vestamannaeyjar.
