In the summer of 2016, Iceland’s National Soccer Team charmed Europe. Match after match they showed a tremendous fighting spirit, flawless organization, impressive team spirit and an effective offensive way of playing. We, at Sideline Sports, are not as surprised of Iceland’s success like the rest of the world.

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KSI’s Challenge

Iceland is the smallest nation ever to reach a major soccer tournament. Euro 2016 was the first tournament for the men’s team, while the women’s team participated in the Euro’s at three consecutive occasions, 2009, 2013 and 2017. Only 47 clubs have their own Youth Departments, so it is quite an impressive result.

A small, strong Federation involves a special development environment, and the “Head of Youth Development” in each academy must have a “UEFA A Youth License”. KSI has always seen skilled and educated coaches as absolutely crucial to develop national team players, in order to be able to perform at the international level.

The challenge right now is to develop a common path for education plans, drills, programs and take the coaches’ education and player development to another level.

How did Sideline XPS help?

Sideline Sports and KSI started their cooperation back in 2011. Through our tight partnership we have seen the journey from one of Europe’s smallest teams until the summer’s big success in Euro 2016. And this is no surprise to us at Sideline Sports. We know how hard work these coaches put in and how well prepared they are for every single game they play.

All players of both the men and women teams have their own XPS accounts, which allows easy communication between the coaches and the players. The coaching team uses Sideline Video Analyzer and they can send video clips directly from the analysis tool to the players’ apps. Players, in turn, use the app for physical monitoring and other tests.

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Sideline Sports and KSI also work closely together in coach educations. One good example is that all coaches who study the “UEFA A Youth»-course, automatically get access to XPS and Sideline Video Analyzer, so they can share drills, practice plans, and have access to their own tools for planning and analysis.

During the education, the coaches creates drills and practice plans and get education material from their XPS accounts. A lot of communication and examination between participants and instructors occur directly through the platform.

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After the certification, XPS continues being a natural part of the course participants daily work. Education material and drill collections remain in the coaches’ private accounts and they are also linked to the Federation, with possibilities to create and share drills and knowledge with other coaches.

Currently, KSI and Sideline Sports are discussing how the cooperation can be taken to another level by adding all the youth national team players into the system. Each player will have their own account with access to the XPS app, where the Federation can collect all important information, and be able to support the players with individual development plans.

 Further Reading

The Guardian – “Football, fire and ice: the inside story of Iceland’s remarkable rise”