Imagine you’ve taken two flights: one cross country, and one across an ocean. You land, meet your new coach at the airport, sleep overnight at a hotel, and the next morning when you meet your new team, he turns to you and says, “By the way, you’re playing today….And, I really need you, but I can’t put you in your regular position.” Would you be up for the challenge?
That’s what happened to Natasha Anasi when she arrived in Iceland in 2014 to join her new team: Úrvalsdeild kvenna club ÍBV. And she was up to the task—in fact, despite jetlag and the other mitigating factors, Anasi scored a goal in that game.
In this episode of Soccer Geeks, we spent some time hearing from Anasi about her experience playing in Iceland, her return to soccer after maternity leave, and more.
Anasi shared that soccer in Iceland tends to be more technical and less athletic than the game is in the United States, and “coaches are very tactically minded.” This doesn’t mean it’s easy to come in as an American—Icelandic coaches have very high expectations for the Americans who join their teams. Iceland has three women’s divisions: a top league, a first division, and a second division; throughout Anasi’s career, her teams have been both promoted and relegated.
Anasi took a break from soccer for the birth of her daughter in 2017. She shared some of her concerns when she was pregnant, including, “am I going to be the same player I was before?” Anasi was able to train post-pregnancy, and in 2020, after getting dual citizenship (in 2019), Anasi debuted on the Icelandic national team. Her role on the team brought her back to Texas in 2022, where she played against the U.S. national team.
When we asked Anasi what she would change in soccer today, her answer was, “I think on the youth side, I would probably change the pay-to-play scheme. I think, here in Europe, I really see how accessibility has helped make soccer available to everyone. You can still produce talent at the highest level and create a competitive enough environment without paying insane costs. I know, it’s controversial and probably very difficult to do because it takes a very large investment.”