How the spirit of Egil Olsen saved the romance of the cup
The Norwegian Cup is a weird creature. Paragraph 4e in the tournament rules state that the set up of games (i.e. not drawn) will ‘take into account geographical, economical and sporting considerations’. Which in practice means that in the first two rounds top flight teams are given an away draw against a local lower division team. Now please bear with me for a moment as we delve into the intricacies of the Norwegian league system.
The quality gap between the top flight and the two levels below (Adeccoligaen and 2.division) has steadily contracted, thanks to a concentration of teams on those two tiers. The level under the top flight went from two different groups into one in 1997, with 16 teams in what is now known as Adeccoligaen. The level below that – 2.divisjon – went from eight to four different groups in 2001. Naturally, getting rid of 50% off the teams in the second and third tiers created a much larger concentration of talent, with a distinct shift from semi-professionalism to professional in 2.tier and again from amateur to semi-pro in the tier below. However, the fourth tier (3.division) consisted until last season of 24 groups and a total of 288 teams. This has now been reduced to 12, but the difference of quality in two 3.division teams can still be huge.
That fact was clearly illustrated in the first round of the cup this year where most Tippeligaen teams was set up against a local 3.division teams, in addition to all Adeccoligaen teams getting lower division opponents. It all but eliminates the potential for upsets and inevitable leads to matches with a ridiculous amount of goals. Scores of 1-12, 0-11, 0-10, 0-10, 1-9, 0-8, 0-8, 0-7, 1-7, 0-6, 0-5, 5-0, 1-5, 5-1, 3-6, 2-6 & seven 4-0s proves the point. After the dust had settled and goal nets repaired across the country, the total record of top flight teams in the first round was bordering on silly: Played 16, Won 16, Goal difference 95-6.
Luckily, the romance of the cup had not yet been completely extinguished. While 15 of the top-flight teams eased through to the third round, Vålerenga crashed out to a 2.division team for the second time in three years, losing 2-1 to Kjelsås. More about the dreadful turn Vålerenga’s season has taken below, but Kjelsås is a great story in their own right.
With a tiny stadium (only one side has any sort of terrace, and even then the term is used loosely) squeezed into a leafy suburban area, they are the quintessential local Norwegian sports club. Situated north in Oslo, their proximity to the immense forest surrounding the capital has made them more famous of skiing and orienteering than football. That all briefly changed in the late 90s under their coach Stig Mathisen, who had taken over the team in 1994. This was in the middle of Egil Olsen’s ‘effective football’ revolution in Norway, and Mathisen was very much of the same tactical schooling, having Kjelsås playing an arguably even more extreme version of Olsen’s long-ball tactics. Olsen himself was so impressed there were reports that together with his assistant, Nils Johan Semb, Stig Mathisen was one of two candidates that the legendary coach recommended to the Norwegian F.A. as his replacement in 1998.
That year coincided with Kjelsås’ best ever season, leading the 1.divison (now Adeccoligaen) for most of the year, before finishing third and losing to Kongsvinger in the play-off to the top-flight. Mathisen stayed on as coach until 2007, but Kjelsås slowly faded away from the collective football discourse in Norway until this week’s cup upset. Goals from Martin Sandell and Jimi Akinyemi secured perhaps their most famous victory ever over Oslo’s biggest team and presumed title contenders Vålerenga....
Oh look, another big team in trouble!
In my previous round-up I noted how Viking’s coach Åge Hareide had avoided a lot of criticism for his team's terrible start to the season, the media focus being largely on Jan Jönsson and his Rosenborg team’s even worse start. Rosenborg’s two successive and very impressive wins had left Hareide dangerously exposed as the new whipping boy. Then Viking had a draw so incredibly dull against Sogndal that anybody watching it simply fell asleep and forgot to report on what was another underwhelming result for the Stavanger side. More importantly, another top team manager came to Hareide’s rescue, all ready and able to take over the media spotlight.
It’s Martin Andresen’s fourth season in charge of Vålerenga, having previously been player-manager for two years. After their impressive second place last year, the title winners from 2006 were widely tipped to be a serious contender again. Those predictions looked like one of the few that would actually come to fruition after Vålerenga secured an impressive away win against Viking in the season opener, followed by predictable defeat of Aalesund in their first home game. Then suddenly the wheels came off. They lost away to Stabæk after an own goal, needed a late equaliser to rescue a point at home to local rivals Lillestrøm, then they were outplayed and defeated by a resurgent Rosenborg and finally showed no spirit and a total lack of creativity against Brann, succumbing to an insipid 2-0 loss on home turf. The humiliation against Kjelsås just adds another big log to the crisis fire at Vålerenga, and not just in terms of lack of confidence and morale.
The cup is still genuinely ‘A Big Deal’ in Norwegian football. After the faded importance of the F.A. Cup in England, there is a genuine argument to be made that this is the domestic cup in Europe most sought after and valued by the fans and players of that nation. It is partly to do with the culture and history of the competition, the winner still being titled ‘Norwegian Champion of Football’ and given the King’s Trophy, the highest domestic accolade achievable in Norwegian sport. The final itself is the biggest game of the Norwegian calendar, and still has the collective feel of a ‘nation watching together’. So the loss against Kjelsås will have hurt Vålerenga’s sporting ambitions as well, and with the team now in 13th place Monday's tough away game again Fredrikstad will see added pressure on Andresen and his players. Oh, and Viking has a very winnable home game against Odd Grenland.
Big 4 update
Ah, yes - Predicted Big Four watch. Tipped by pundits everywhere (guilty) to be the teams slugging out for the title, Molde, Rosenborg, Vålerenga and Viking are now 10th, 11th, 13th and 14th respectively. Stay tuned.
Haugesund’s brave fight against sanity
After a string of ridiculous results and matches as incomprehensible as (come up with your own analogy), a sense of normality threaten to overcome the week 6 games. Boring results as 0-0, 1-1 and 1-0 were seen with frightening regularity, but purists of unpredictable football can always trust Haugesund to supply them with a little treat. After letting in a goal after 10 seconds against Brann in their previous home game and then losing a 3-1 lead even before half-time, the home side’s mantra was surely ‘focus and concentration’ before hosting Stabæk. And all the hard work on the training ground had obviously paid off with Haugesund successfully defending their goal for a whole 21 seconds before Veigar Páll Gunnarsson gave Stabæk the lead. Not only that, the extraordinarily named Alain Junior Ollé Ollé added two more goals to see the visitors 3-0 ahead after 36 minutes. Alas, it takes more to knock Haugesund out, and it was almost inevitable that they would stage a great fight-back with Tom Erik Nordberg making it 3-3 in the 81th minute. ‘Finally time to switch off again’ thought the Haugesund defence, as Gunnarsson went up the other end two minutws later and made it a 4-3 win for Stabæk. Hopefully Tippeligaen will return to normality this weekend with 3-3s and 5-0s all over the place again.
Solid as a Rock
Tromsø is continuing what most be the least entertaining run for the league title since Lillestrøm’s 1-0 merchants of 1989, getting a good 1-1 draw away against surprise leaders Strømsgodset. In a sea of crazy results, headless defenders and teams as unpredictable as the mood swings of a Brann supporter, Tromsø is the sturdy, solid whale trawler steadily moving towards a very good kil..season. If they continue their steady run of results and considered displays they will come as close to their first title as they ever have been before. Their main challenge will come when one of the bigger teams inevitably climbs the table and force Tromsø to prove that they also have the creativity and unpredictability in attack needed to win the title.
Going down, going down...
Predicting places 1-15 in Tippeligaen is if anything more difficult now than before the season. However, to spot the obvious candidate for 16th you don’t have to be a pundit of Alan Shearer’s calibre. I’m officially going out on a very tiny limb (or is that a very big one?) and state that Sogndal will finish last. Which is a shame.
The tiny village on the west coast of Norway is one of the great success stories of Norwegian football. With a population of just over 7000 they pride themselves on producing local and regional talent. The most obvious example is the extended Flo family, with Tore Andre, Jostein and their cousin Håvard all representing Norway at World Cups in the 1990s, but quality players such as Erik Bakke and Frode Grodås also started their careers in Sogndal. It’s their first time back in Tippeligaen since 2004 (they used to go up and down between the top two tiers with much more regularity) and they simply don’t have the quality in a young and inexperienced team, even with Bakke back at his old club. Harald Aabrekk is a good, experienced couch in the traditional Norwegian model, keeping them fairly organised defensively (four of their eight conceded goals came in one match and they have been involved in the only two goalless draws of the season), but there is a complete lack of attacking menace or creativity, with only two goals in six matches
Sogndal is a stark contrast to the other newly promoted teams. Fredrikstad has quality all over the pitch and is having a quietly confident start to the season with 10 points giving them fifth place so far. Sarpsborg are a bit more unorthodox, crushing everything in their way at home (3 wins, 6-0 goal difference), and then saving energy by lying down and taking it easy in the away games (3 losses, 4-10 goal difference). Fredrikstad will be comfortable mid-table or higher, while Sarpsborg home record and attacking enthusiasm might succeed where Blackpool in the Premier League seem likely to fail. But for Sogndal this should be a year of learning and added experience for their young squad, as they will surely be going down.
16th May - National Football Day
One of the great traditions of Norwegian football is the 16th of May games. With the whole country off the next day celebrating Norway’s national day, there is a long tradition in hostig a full league round the day before with attendances always among the highest of the season. The Norwegian F.A. usually plays it role in creating a festive atmosphere, deliberately saving some of the biggest matches of the year for this day. Taking that into consideration, the fixture list this year is slightly underwhelming, but big crowds in Bergen and Trondheim will be assured with both Brann and Rosenborg in great form. Otherwise the clash between Lillestrøm and Molde will see the first managerial match-up between old teammates Henning Berg and Ole Gunnar Solskjær, while Tromsø will record a steady 2-0 win over Sarpsborg, the midnight sun now only days away from banishing all dark from the northern city.
Results
Fredrikstad 1-1 Lillestrøm
Ruud Tveter 68 Ujah 76
Attn: 9262
Vålerenga 0-2 Brann
Ojo 14, 75
Attn: 16 674
Start 2-3 Aalesund
Mathisen 13 Skiri 35
Årst 76 Sellin 39
Jääger 47
Attn: 6 906
Haugesund 3-4 Stabæk
Søderlund 40, 58 (pen) Gunnarsson 1, 83
Nordberg 81 Ollé Ollé 25, 36
Attn: 4 194
Odd Grenland 1-0 Sarpsborg 08
Fevang 44
Attn: 5 054
Strømsgodset 1-1 Tromsø
Konradsen 33 Kara 45
Attn: 6 206
Molde 0-2 Rosenborg
Larsen 40
Prica 90
Attn: 11 210
Sogndal 0-0 Viking
Attn: 2 304
Player of the week: Daniel Örlund, Rosenborg
Top Scorers:
8 goals: Anthony Ujah, Lillestrøm
6 goals: Rade Prica, Rosenborg
5 goals: Nosa Igiebor, Lllestrøm
Veigar Páll Gunnarsson, Stabæk
Kim Ojo, Brann
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