ORLANDO, Fla. -- Iceland managed to hold off Canada for a 2-1 victory on Friday night in a friendly, but the biggest winner of the evening might be Columbus Crew SC.
Crew SC fans certainly had reason to be excited to see newly-signed Icelandic midfielder Kristinn Steindórsson net a goal on American soil. Friday's friendly was the 24-year-old’s senior debut for his country, though he played with the Iceland youth teams on all levels. He started his senior team career in a big way, opening the scoring in the 5th minute by calmly heading home a Rúrik Gíslason cross.
The game was the start of Steindórsson's stint in the United States, which includes another friendly against Canada before making his way to Ohio in person to meet the team and prepare for the coming season in earnest.
“Of course I’m excited. I just arrived last Saturday, and I’m in Orlando until Monday,” said Steindórsson after the match. “I’m heading up there on Monday, meeting the team, doing some tests, and then we start preseason.”
While some may wonder about the wisdom of moving away from Europe after getting his first national team selection for Iceland, Steindórsson didn’t sound too worried about that, saying only, “It depends if I’m picked for the squad, of course. Hopefully it will all work out.”
Iceland are hoping to qualify for the 2016 European Championship, which would be the country's first-ever major tournament.
Steindórsson said he believes Columbus head coach Gregg Berhalter plans to utilize him as an attacking midfielder in the Crew SC’s 4-2-3-1 formation.
“As far as I know, they see me in one of the three positions behind the forward,” he said. “Either on the left, right, or maybe even in the center.”
Steindórsson has been plying his trade with Halmstad in Sweden since 2012. While the Swedish league has helped him develop his game, Steindórsson is ready to test his mettle against the star power present in Major League Soccer.
“There are players that I’m looking forward to playing with on Columbus,” he said. “I am also looking forward to playing against players like Kaká and [Steven] Gerrard.”
Of course, the first step for Steindórsson may be catching up with game tape.
“They don’t show so many [MLS] games on TV in Europe because of the time difference,” Steindórsson said. “I got some Columbus games sent to me which I watched, and I’ve seen some highlights on YouTube.”
