During the German team’s game against Iceland, there was an embarrassing mishap before the game. An incorrect version of the Scandinavians’ national anthem was played.
In the first main round game of the DHB selection against Iceland on Thursday evening, a strange situation arose: after the German national anthem was played in the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, that of the Icelanders was supposed to follow. But after the first few seconds, the camera only showed visibly irritated Scandinavians.
Goalkeeper Viktor Gisli Hallgrimsson frowned and signaled with his hands that something was wrong. No Icelanders sang along. An official frantically waved his arms to signal the mistake. When some spectators whistled, the anthem was stopped.
It was obviously the Icelanders’ anthem, but due to a technical problem the soundtrack skipped ahead after just a few seconds – no chance for the Icelanders to sing along. As the organization later announced, the reason for this was a technical problem with the laptop’s audio player.
“We apologize to the Icelandic team,” said the hall spokesman. The 19,750 fans in the sold-out arena bridged the almost one-minute break after the demolition with shouts of Iceland before the real version of the national anthem continued. It was also sung along by national coach Alfred Gíslason. For the 64-year-old Icelander, it was his first competitive game against his home country.