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.
May 15th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Just what is the story of Norwegian independence?
May 15th, 2009 at 10:10 am
We were a part of Denmark for a while, but when they got done in the Napoleonic wars they had to give us away to the Swedes. We didn’t quite fancy it and declared ourselves to be independent (by making a constitution, this was 17th of May 1814, the day we celebrate), and a bit of a war broke out between us and the Swedes. The war was a bit rubbish and no one were really up for it so a truce was reached. The truce stipulated that we were still in a union with Sweden but they didn’t really have any powers over us. After that we just sorta gradually slipped out of the union and the Swedes weren’t too bothered (something they’d come to regret later I suspect, what with the oil and all that).
May 15th, 2009 at 11:34 am
No favours for the big boys, start on square one – but is there some sort of seeding to give the little fellas who draw them home advantage, or was that just coincidence this year?
May 15th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Ah, yeah, should have mentioned that. The little guys are indeed given home advantage. Also, to avoid ridiculously long treks, teams are always drawn against teams from their home region in the first round. And possibly the second. Hmm. I have to read up on this cup-business.
May 16th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
I think the region rule was changed this year i mean VIF came to Trøndelag and Rosenborg went to Gjøvik.
May 16th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Haha. I really really need to read up on this cup-business.
May 16th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Is there any controversy involved here? is there something that offends certain regions or sections of the population? In Finland you should never mention a ‘civil war’ to someone from Vaasa, unless they do first, as people from that region killed only Russians in 1918. Likewise, if you meet a leftie, don’t mention the ‘war of independence’ – they could get a bit annoyed. Best not to mention it at all, unless your interlocutor is drunk and annoying, which is fairly likely, to be honest.