Soccer: Kiwi finds a niche in Iceland league

All White Che Bunce is enjoying playing football at the top of the world, as TERRY MADDAFORD reports.

GUADALAJARA - Che Bunce jokingly admits that the only words he knows how to speak in Iceland's native tongue are the dirty ones.

He is, he also acknowledges, a slow learner, having played soccer for three seasons in that country.

Apart from his girlfriend, Larissa Jepsen, from Cambridge, "who hates the place," Bunce has found only one other New Zealander in the Icelandic republic.

He has also learned of the misconception that the country is covered in snow for much of the year, and he has also learned that it is home to only 300,000 people, of which 150,000 live in the capital, Reykjavik, that it is colder in Scandinavia and Scotland than Iceland, that there is little or no poverty and that fishing is the main source of income.

It is a long way from Hamilton's Porritt Stadium or Gower Park to Iceland but Bunce, in Mexico as a member of New Zealand's Confederations Cup soccer squad, says his football is all the better for the upheaval of leaving Waikato United (now Melville) for the northern climes.

"I kept in contact with Saevar Petursson, who played with us in Hamilton about four years ago," Bunce said. "He got me up there for a trial and I was signed on an initial one-year contract by the Breidablik Cup. We have kept it going from there.

"It" is a step up from any club football at home. It is probably not too far ahead of the top clubs in New Zealand, but well ahead of others in the North and South Island Leagues.

"The team I'm in have been promoted this season into the top division. With only 10 teams it is a relatively short [May to September] season."

Like New Zealand, the Iceland domestic competition is bereft of local internationals, with most teams boasting a number of imports. Less than half-a-dozen from the Iceland national side, who are ranked about 50 places higher than New Zealand, play at home.

"They are football mad," said 23-year-old Bunce. "The skill level of the kids is really high - as good as any in England or Spain. They love their football but with a relatively weak domestic championship, it is a struggle to keep them in the game."

Bunce, who scored on his international debut but has not since and who prefers to play a central defensive role, said soccer in Iceland was a different game from that played in New Zealand, with the emphasis on skill rather than the physical.

"I know I have improved. Playing in a semi-professional environment has obvious benefits. There is a lot of one-touch play in training and many small-sided games. It all helps."