A rare outbreak of sunshine in the Western bits of the country has left NFN’s Norwegian offices in a state of confusion and chaos, yet we struggle manfully on and here is an unusually pithy preview of this weekend’s action.
Sunday
Tromsø (13th) – Aalesund (9th)
Tromsø will be desperate to improve on their rubbish home-record (1-4-2), while Aalesund will be desperate to get attention for something else than what’s coming out of their manager’s mouth.
Draw
Strømsgodset (14th) – Sandefjord (10th)
Ideal chance for Ronny Deila’s plucky darlings to puck up back-to-back wins as Sandefjord appear to be in a tailspin. Just two points in the last seven games for the visitors, now that’s relegation-form.
Home win
Fredrikstad (11th) – Bodø/Glimt (15th)
While not at their best these days, Fredrikstad showed against Lyn that their still well capable of giving the bottom-teams a right spanking. One suspects they might do the same here.
Home win
Molde (2nd) – Lyn (16th)
Still bottom of the table, still can’t afford to pay rent for their stadium, should probably sack the manager but can’t afford to. It’s really REALLY not going well for Lyn.
Home win
Odd Grenland (3rd) – Viking (8th)
The last time Viking played Odd Grenland Mame Niang scored twice, and last time they faced them away from home Jone Samuelsen scored a brilliant goal. Clearly this is a wildly unpredictably fixture where anything can happen.
Home win
Vålerenga (4th) – Rosenborg (1st)
Going on their performances alone it’s utterly inexplicable that Vålerenga have notched up 12 points in their last five games, but here we are and credit must go to Mad Martin for this job-saving run of results.
Draw
Monday
Stabæk (7th) – Brann (6th)
What got dwarfed by the whole Redkal versus Bakke-story was the fact that Brann weren’t actually terrible in their game against Alesund, with even Eirik Bakke himself looking like something vaguely resembling a useful player. Still, an improving Stabæk is another proposition altogether and you sense that the three points might be staying at Telenor Arena here.
Home win
June 28th, 2009 at 9:26 am
You know, I’m trying and trying, but I really can’t find any logical flaw with any of these predictions…
… Except the fact that they are indeed based on logic, which something the league has mostly been blessedly free of. Meaning most of them will be wrong because the teams just won’t do what is expected of them.
Odd will still win home, though.
June 28th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I think this is often the problem with my predictions, they’re too logical. The Tippeliga and logic are two concepts that don’t often go all that well together.
June 28th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Either your brain is fried by the sun, or the favourites forgot they have to play to win. Viking, Bodø-Glimt and Sandefjord all manage draws away?? That’s just crazy.
June 28th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Both are probably true.
June 28th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
All that was missing would have been Lyn managing a draw or a win thanks to the usual ineffectiveness of the home team… But all of a sudden, even Molde finally figured out they too actually -like- scoring goals. Which of course is so unusual in itself, it almost cancels out the otherwise correct prediction of a home win. I mean, surely you meant that Molde would win 1-0, or at best 2-1, right?
And Viking is usually giving it a bit extra against Odd. See, a slight rivalry do in fact exist between those two, thanks to the facts that
a) When Odd finally returned in -99, after decades in lower divisions, their first game was away against Viking. They won, after among other things a goal from former Viking player Christian Flindt Bjerg (sold to Odd before the season); and
b) The cup final of 2000, best remembered for Erik Holtan’s fantastic saves against Viking’s desperate assault waves near the end, and Erik Pedersen’s tanga show once the victory was secured. Oh, and Christian Flindt Bjerg scored another goal against his former team.