Nordic Football News

Norwegian teams are off on the road to Ullevål after a first round that was like a footballing equivalent of a Harry Potter-convention: Plenty of belief, but no actual magic to be found. 

The Norwegian cup is a terrifically democratic competition: No favors are given to the big names from the Tippeliga as they start on square one along with the rest of the pack. The idealist will say that’s it’s a wonderful idea to have an open field like this, that it’s fantastic for local communities that their teams get to mix it with the pros for 90 minutes and that it means everyone can believe in that implausible dream of the plucky underdogs who go all the way. Cynics will say that watching top-level players casually humiliate the earnest but ultimately rather rubbish lower leaguers is a colossal waste of everyone’s time. Falling neatly in between those two chairs, NFN will tell you what happened, but not a whole lot more.

Results (teams from the Tippeliga or Adeccoliga in bold):

Vindbjart 1 – 3 Randaberg

Ørn-Horten 3 – 4 Saprsborg 08

Redalen 0 – 1 NIL-Trysil

Bossekop 0 – 1 Tromsdalen

Fjøra 0 – 1 Løv-Ham

Klepp 1 – 5 Bryne

Flisa 4 – 5 Kongsvinger

Strømmen 2 – 0 Korsvoll

Eidsvold Turn 2 – 0 Valdres Fk

Asker 2 – 1 Fk Tønsberg

Mysen 1 – 5 Follo

Raufoss 3 – 1 Ullern

Skjetten 1 – 2 Kjelsås

Verdal 1 – 6 Vålerenga

Kristiansund 5 – 2 Nardo

Smørås 0 – 4 Sogndal

Follese 1 – 2 Fyllingen

Trøff 3 – 4 Hødd

Brattvåg 0 – 5 Aalesund

Tornado Måløy 1 – 8 Molde

Odda 1 – 6 Viking

Vard Haugesund 0 – 4 Vidar

Egersund 3-3 Kopervik

Lyngbø 1 – 0 Fana Fotball

Vadmyra 1 – 1 Åsane Fotball

Stord 0 – 2 Nest-Sotra

Senja 0 -1 Bodø/Glimt

Mjølner 1 -1 Harstad

Mo 1 – 2 Stålkameratene

Sander 0 – 5 Stabæk

Fløya 0 – 4 Tromsø

Skarp 1 – 2 Alta

KIL/Henne 0 – 2 Byåsen

Strindheim 5 – 0 Tiller

Elnesvågen/O 1 – 2 Skarbøvik

Steinkjer 8 – 2 Charlottenlund

Kolstad 2 – 3 Ranheim

Kattem 1 – 5 Levanger

Røa 3 – 1 Manglerud Star

Hasle-Løren 0 – 2 Drøbak/Frogn

Årvoll 0 – 3 Hønefoss

FF Lillehammer 0 – 0 KFUM Oslo

Elverum 1 – 4 HamKam (after extra time)

Fjellhamar 1 -2 Lørenskog

Rakkestad 0 – 6 Moss

Østsiden 2 – 3 Lillestrøm

Kvik Halden 2 – 1 Skeid

Frigg 0 – 4 Lyn Oslo

Grüner 2 – 5 Ullensaker/Kisa

Nordstrand 0 – 7 Fredrikstad

Lyngdal 1 – 6 Stavanger

Trauma 1 – 4 Start

Pors Grenland 1 – 2 Notodden

Ålgård 2 – 2 Fløy

Frøyland 1 – 4 Haugesund

Sandnes Ulf 4 – 2 Mandalskameratene

Konnerud 2 – 4 Strømsgodset (after extra time)

Jevnaker 1 – 1 Mjøndalen (Mjøndalen through on penalties)

Gjøvik FF 0 – 4 Rosenborg 

Stathelle 2 – 4 Sandefjord Fotball

Sandar 0 – 3 Bærum

Fram Larvik 1 – 1 Drammen Fk

Høyang 0 – 6 Brann

Vestfossen 0 – 4 Odd Grenland

 

So there it is. With the exception of Skeid every team from the top two tiers went through, and with the exception of Strømsgodset and perhaps Lillestrøm every Tippeliga club went through with considerable ease. Lillestrøm obviously being one of the usual suspects when it comes to providing cup-upsets, having famously once managed to get themselves knocked out of the UEFA-cup by a team from Luxembourg, but here they scraped through with a narrow win.

The upset-loving public turned their eyes to Lillestrøm’s fellow screwup-merchants Brann and hoped they’d embarrass themselves somehow, but sadly Steinar Nilsen’s men did an uncharacteristically professional job on poor little Høyang with a 6-0 win.

NFN’s favorite lower league team, the fantastically named Trauma, again went out in the first round. Every season headline-writers all over the country pray to a multitude of deities for their safe passage to at least the second round, but alas the pun-tastic trauma-related headlines will have to be put back on the shelf for another year as the team was quite understandably bested by Start.

In this particular case the Norwegian football calendar has been well put-together, because after the non-event that is the first round of the cup comes the traditional 16th of may round of the Tippeliga. Played on the eve of Norway’s constitutional day, the one day of the year when we all allow ourselves to be rampantly nationalistic in public, the 16th of may round guarantees packed grounds and a party-atmosphere all over the top division. Preview of the round will be up by Friday. 

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