Nordic Football News

Yes, after a gaffe-tastic round 8 we have to ask. You can keep your Frank Haffey, your Fred Martin and all of your Andy Gorams, on the evidence of tonight the Norwegian goalkeepers are as dodgy as they come. 

Starting with what should be the big dog, Rune Jarstein, assumed to be Drillo’s first choice for the upcoming internationals. He dropped a serious clanger to hand Lyn the lead in their eventual 1-1 draw with Rosenborg at Ullevål. The visitors replied through a free kick from Marek Sapara, a well hit one but one Lyn’s Swedish keeper Johan Dahlin should have gotten to. Jarstein was clearly shaken by his gaffe, and proceeded to almost give away another goal with a spectacularly misjudged excursion into his penalty-area which could and perhaps should have ended in disaster. It wasn’t all bad for Jarstein though, he did have the presence of mind to save Diego Gustavino’s rather lame attempt at a Panenka-penalty. This, the round’s TV2-televised encounter, was an otherwise dull and uneventful affair. The viewing public could clearly see why Lyn had only scored a single goal at Ullevål this season before the game, and they could also see why, in spite of their impressive results, many remain unconvinced about this season’s Rosenborg-edition. 

Still, I ask you, who else is going to win it? Seriously?

Earlier in the evening, at the lovely Aker Stadion, Molde only had to dispose of Mad Martin’s misfiring Vålerenga to keep their superb start to the season going. Except that turned out to be harder than expected, especially since their goalkeeper Jan Kjell Larsen (By the way, Jan Kjell? What kind of name is that?) felt it nesscecary to boost VIF-winger Dawda Leigh’s confidence by letting his weak long-range effort bounce past him and over the line. A goal down, Molde poured forward and created several chances, but the woodwork and Vålerenga’s American goalkeeper Troy Perkins combined to keep the boys in blue at bay. Instead, Freddy Dos Santos and Bojan Zajic made it 2 and 3-0, a score that was in a way deeply unfair on Molde, who played a decent game but came up short in front of both goals. “There are still a lot of things to work on”, said Mad Martin’s administrative sock puppet Vålerenga’s sporting director Truls Haakonsen after the game. No argument there.

The biggest gaffe of the round came at Sør Arena where, inevitably, Lillestrøm’s slump continued against Start. What was avoidable was the first goal they let in, their young and promising keeper André Hansen had a bit of a Paul Robinson-moment and had a whack at thin air rather than John Anders Bjørkøy’s backpass. Oops. Like against Brann, what Henning Berg’s boys desperately needs is a bit of luck, and this most certainly wasn’t it. Even without Geir Ludvig Fevang, who had to pull out at the last moment, Start put in a fine performance and Christian Bolanos notched up two more assists in what ended up a 3-0 win. It was a case of a team full of confidence versus a team with no confidence, and we all know how those usually end.

That outcome, incidentally, was the only one NFN managed to predict this time around. After a whopping five out of seven at the weekend, the notoriously unreliable predictions are back to their usual, Lawroesque levels of ineptitude. 

Another goalkeeper who had a really rather bad time of it this afternoon was Viking’s Thomas Myhre. The former Norway international (we all remember what happened there) has finally been fit again this season and has looked rather good, but against Sandefjord he really should have kept out two of the hosts’ goals in their 3-1 win. Also, for the second week running, we had one of those “ball goes over the line, goal isn’t given”-incidents in the Tippeliga, which is a bit annoying.

This game also saw the start of what could become a running feature here: NFN helps struggling footballers! Sandefjord Admir Rascic was pointed and laughed at in the preview for the fact that he’d gone 442 minutes without scoring his first goal in the Tippeliga, and of course the guy comes up with a goal. How could it be otherwise?

That goes for Trond Fredrik Ludvigsen as well, who hadn’t scored in the Tippeliga since 2005, something that was also pointed out for humorous effect in the preview. What happens? Two minutes into Bodø/Glimt’s encounter with Stabæk he loops a fine left-footed half-volley over Jon Knutsen in the Stabæk goal. We should be charging for this, youknow. Anyway, the game ended 2-1 to Bodø/Glimt, a much-needed win for the Northerners and bad news for friends and family of the Stabæk-players. Why? Because they’ve all decided not to shave their moustaches untill they win a game. Daniel Nannskog for one is looking forward to their next win: “We’re playing a team from the third division in the cup this weekend. Maybe we can shave after that. Many are getting tired of this f***ing moustache”.

Lastly, Random Eddie strikes again! Infuriating referee Svein Erik Edvartsen yet again gave a penalty for what most people agree was a fairly innocuous challenge in the box. This time it was Kjetil Rekdal’s Aalesund who were on the receiving end, and the reasonably outspoken manager was far from happy about it: “The federation has to do something. It’s a joke, and it’s starting to happen a bit too often”. The penalty was converted and sent Strømsgodset on their way to 2-0 win, three big big points and a big confidence-boost for Ronny Deila’s plucky bunch.