The league is even more unpredictable than we thought
Before the season every pundit was predicting a very open league with very few certainties. The only areas there were agreement on was that there were four realistic title contenders in Rosenborg, Vålerenga, Viking and Molde, and that newly Sarpsborg 08 would not have the quality to survive. Inevitable, there were opening round defeats for Molde and Rosenborg, with Viking’s inability to convert their chances resulted in Vålerenga punishing them on the break and getting the only victory among the presumed top 4 teams.
Sarpsborg 08 came out flying with a 3-0 home win over Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s Molde, showing their intent to attack themselves out of trouble this season. Stabæk, who were supposed to have turned a corner after a terrible season last year and were now even talked about as an outsider for the title, quickly rectified that perception with a 7-0 home loss to Lillestrøm, who had been expected to struggle to find goals.
Brann, widely tipped for another struggle, maybe even relegation, made sure Rosenborg didn’t have to be distracted by an unbeaten run this season, securing a well deserved 2-1 win at home. Throw in an away win for another promoted team, Fredrikstad, and the only thing still certain is that nobody knows nothing. Still, Norwegian football has a new impressive run to concentrate on; how many games will it be before the first draw this season? 8 and counting.
All the young dudes are set to become big hits
Be it a welcome side-effect from the financial difficulties in modern football or a golden generation of talented youngsters, the emergence of genuine and exciting talents all over the Norwegian league has already manifested itself.
17 year old Håvard Nielsen opened the scoring for Vålerenga against Viking with a cool finish, demonstrating some of the skills that has seem him become one of the most anticipated striking talents since John Carew broke through for the same club over a decade ago. Viking gave starts to two of their own teenage prospects; Valon Berisha and the spectacularly named Yann-Erik de Lanlay, who were employed as the attacking wide players in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Champions Rosenborg went one better and had three of their teenagers in the starting line-up. Mushaga Bakenga grabbed himself a goal in their defeat to Brann, central midfielder Markus Henriksen has already been capped by Norway and Gjermund Åsen put in a decent shift in a wide eft position.
All four of the title contenders have young players performing key roles in the team, with Molde employing former Man United reserve Magnus Wolff-Eikrem (20) in central midfield. There were also three more young, Norwegian goal scorers in the opening round with Ohi Omoijuanfo (17 years – Lillestrøm), Thomas Drage (19 – Tromsø) and Ola Kamara (21 – Strømsgodset) all opening their account for the season.
Almost every club seems to have at least one noticeable and very promising Norwegian player ready to influence their season, but there are also plenty of foreign youngsters making their mark. None more so than Anthony Ujah. The twenty year old managed an impressive 14 goals last season, even with his club Lillestrøm struggling at the bottom half of the table. He’s on course to surpass that already, with 4 magnificent goals away to Stabæk. Fast, strong, comfortable on the ball and with great instinct in front of goal he looks like the genuine article, all his goals taken with quality and ease.
His teammate and fellow Nigerian Nosa Igiebor, also 20, grabbed himself two goals against Stabæk, with both players now inevitably attracting interest from bigger leagues. Carlos Borges is already an established international for Costa Rica, in addition to captaining captaining Fredrikstad this season at the age of 21. He lived up to the pre-season hype with the opening goal and a commanding performance away to Aalesund.
After only one round of matches it is clear that the Norwegian league are seeing the emergence of an unprecedented array of great young talent that looks set to have a dominant and positive influence on the rest of the season.
Not invincible anymore
When Erik Hamren arrived at Rosenborg in the middle of the 2008 season the club had won only one of the last three titles. Stabæk would win their first title later that year, with Rosenborg finishing fifth. It qualified as a very barren run for a club who won 13 league championships in a row from 1993, and got into the Champions League group stage 11 times in 12 years, including reaching the quarter-finals in 1997. Famed for their swashbuckling, yet highly drilled attacking system, Hamren took the necessarily decision of going back to basics to restore success. Solid defensive organising made Rosenborg an unstoppable machine, losing only one game in 2009 and going unbeaten the whole of last season.
Hamren was rewarded for his success with the job as Sweden coach, leaving Rosenborg in the middle of last season. Another Swede, Jan Jönsson, who had led Stabæk to that historic title in 2008, was brought in to continue the impressive and familiar run of success. Implied in his appointment was the expectation of a return to a more creative and attractive style f play.
While defensive problems were apparent in their opening defeat to rivals Brann, Jönsson has been severly hampered by the loss of key players. The impressive centre-half pairing of Vadim Demidov and Kris Staadsgaard both went to La Liga clubs in the winter break. Steffen Iversen and Roar Strand also left, the former to Crystal Palace for his third spell in England and the latter retiring after 418 league games over four different decades for the club. Most importantly, Anthony Annan, who had a great World Cup for Ghana and probably the best player in the league last season, did inevitable move to a bigger league with Schalke 04.
Replacements has been brought in but success this season will also heavily depend on Rosenborg’s crop of very talented youngster filling the gaps left by much more experienced players. The Trondheim side still have the quality and financial muscle to compete for the title, but is clearly a lot more vulnerable than at any point the last two seasons.
Has Ole Gunnar got an European adapter for that hairdryer?
The return to the league of one of Norway’s greatest player after 14 years at Manchester United, three of them as reserve team coach, was the big story before the season. The hype around Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s first senior managerial appointment was understandable, his presence in charge of a promising Molde team even bringing talk of a first ever league championship for the west-coast club. Instead his side came unstuck against newly promoted Sarpsborg 08, a 3-0 loss meaning the former Champions League winner will already need to conjure up some of the skills learned under his old boss. For now, the only resemblance with Sir Alex came during the interval in that opening game, when his slightly bald, English assistant Richard Hartis handled the television interviews in a style that would make Terry Phelan very proud.
The Internet? It’ll never take off.
Paying for both Sky and ESPN and still can’t watch every Premier League game? Annoyed that you’ll have to wait until Tuesday to see highlights on the BBC website, and even then only MOTD2 is available? Welcome to the future. Norwegian football have for the last few years been improving its internet broadcasting of matches, and this season two different providers offer all 240 league matches online, both live and recorded, for as little as ca. £100 for a full year subscription, with monthly and weekly passes also available. And if you are living in Norway, the same subscription will get you both English and Spanish league games as well. The league obviously trusts the new technology to both bring in more revenue for clubs and to give a more comprehensive and value of money product to supporters. It is an offer that still seems far far away for British football fans.
*There are subscriptions available for fans outside Norway. If you are interested, drop me a line on Twitter @ahellofabeating and I’ll give you a step-by-step guide and the translation you need to order it.
Round 1 Results:
Sarpsborg 08 3-0 Molde
Martin Wiig 53
Jo Nymo Matland 56
Øyvind Hoås 75
Attn: 4542
Viking 0-2 Vålerenga
Håvard Nielsen 27
Bojan Zajic 90
Attn: 11 532
Stabæk 0-7 Lillestrøm
Anthony Ujah 15, 27, 64, 69
Nosa Igiebor 45, 48
Ohi Omoijuanfo 79
Attn: 8 107
Odd Grenland 0-2 Start
Espen Hoff 45
Olufemi Oladapo 61
Attn: 6 386
Strømsgodset 2-1 Sogndal
Ola Kamara 32 Ole Jørgen Halvorsen 89
Fredrik Lund Nordkvelle 48
Attn: 5 125
Tromsø 2-0 Haugesund
Thomas Drage 56
Sigurd Rushfeldt 90
Attn: 3 962
Brann 2-1 Rosenborg
Kim Ojo 11 Mushaga Bakenga 69
Bjørnar Holmvik 42
Attn: 16 732
Aalesund 1-2 Fredrikstad
Demar Phillips 36 Celso Borges 50
Mads Hanssen 79
Attn: 9 044
Player of the week: Anthony Ujah, Lillestrøm
Top Scorers:
4 goals: Anthony Ujah, Lillestrøm
2 goals: Nosa Igeibor, Lillestrøm
19 players on 1 goal each
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