April 5, 2007
Rhode Island's Dora Larusdottir (Reykjavik, Iceland) has been a key member of the full Icelandic National team since 2003 and was the squad's leading scorer in 2005. Most recently, she competed with the team at the 2007 Algarve Cup in Portugal. Read on to learn more about her experience...
1. Which countries did you play against during the Algarve cup and what was the score of each game?
We beat China (4-1) and Portugal (5-1), tied Ireland (1-1) and lost to Italy (2-1).
2. Which was the hardest opponent and why?
Italy. They played really good soccer. They were all really fast and had great technique.
3. Was it hard to adjust to playing with the Icelandic National Team after being at Rhode Island or was it a smooth transition? For example are the styles of play different or similar?
I have played with almost all these girls many times before so usually it doesn't take a long time to adjust to playing with them.
4. What did you do in your free time?
We were in Portugal for 10 days and we played 4 games. We had one practice every morning and usually we just relaxed the rest of the day, watched DVDs, etc. A couple of times the coach gave us permission to enjoy the sun and I can tell you that we were all very pleased with that!! You have to understand that we come from Iceland! =) One day we went shopping and we were happy about that too because of the very favorable exchange rate. We spent the last day in down town Algarve and that was really nice too.
5. How was the overall experience of playing in the Algarve Cup in Portugal?
This was the first time we played in that tournament. I really enjoyed being there and playing against some of the best teams in the world. It really gave us great experience, both as a team and as individual players. Hopefully we will play there again next year!
