Uneven, unpredictable, and utterly bonkers: This round was typical Tippeliga, for better or worse.
In Oslo the derby-ghost remains un-busted as Vålerenga failed to overcome a Lyn team possibly powered by the paranormal. Mad Martin’s merry men held a 1-0 lead going into half time after a decidedly dull first half, but then in the second it all exploded into insanity, and after strange things had happened in both ends of the pitch the score at full time was 4-4. “Bloody annoying” said Mad Martin’s assistant manager Tor Ole Skullerud, referring specifically to the fact that Vålerenga conceded four eminently avoidable goals, but one suspects the sentiment also extends to the game in general. This was Vålerenga’s best chance in a while to slay the derby-ghost, with Lyn seemingly in disarray both on and off the pitch, but yet again Lyn’s freakish ability to get their act together when they face Vålerenga earned them a result. For neutrals the game was like miniature version of the Tippeliga as a whole: The quality was questionable, but it was entertaining in its unpredictability and casual insanity. Highlights.
With Rosenborg throwing away two points against Sandefjord the stage was set for Molde to step up, and a win at home against Tromsø would have seen them equal RBK’s points-tally so far. Spurred on by the outstanding El Hadji Makthar Thioune, Molde dominated the game from start to finish and had they shown a bit of ruthlessness and cutting edge they could have scored four or five. However, not for the first time this season (or even this week), the team that dominated and played well without putting their chances away ended up getting punished, and in this case Molde’s 1-0 lead was cancelled out in extra-time by something as freakishly unusual as a header from Tommy Knarvik. Highlights.
Speaking of freakishly unusual things, Peter Ijeh scored not once but twice for Viking and looked like a vaguely useful player throughout their encounter with Stabæk. It was possibly Viking’s best performance all year, but they were ineffective and in the end Stabæk got away with a 2-2 draw. The game went a long way towards answering the question of which goalkeeper Egil “Drillo” Olsen will turn to for Norway’s upcoming qualifiers, as Stabæk’s Jon Knudsen put in a cracking performance and Viking’s Thomas Myhre, one of the few remaining challengers who so far hadn’t gaffed their way out of the reckoning, conceded a howler eerily similar two his double-goof against Turkey. The game was also notable for a bit of verbal handbags after it finished. Stabæk’s Inge Andre Olsen threw a bit of a hissy-fit, calling Viking-manager Uwe Rösler a “monkey”, accusing him of not adhering to fair play concepts and then refusing to shake the man’s hand when the teutonic titan wanted to kiss and make up. In his defense, Olsen had taken a few knocks to the head during the course of the game, so he might have been a bit disoriented. Highlights.
Speaking of players who have taken knocks to the head and frequently appear disoriented, Azar Karadas was back amongst the goals for Brann as they took a fine scalp by beating Fredrikstad away. The hosts were missing their defensive lynchpin Raio Piiroja, and in his absence their defense looked lost and confused. 4-2 was the final score, a fine win for Steinar Nilsen’s men, who again show that there is plenty of quality in their squad. Now if only they could find some form of consistency… Highlights.
Up North Bodø/Glimt put up an impressive 3-0 win over Kjetil Rekdal’s Aalesund, prompting yet another furious rant against his own players from the temperamental tactician. “It’s a sensational achievement by us to lose this game 3-0. If we had gone back onto the pitch and played the game again, trying to lose 3-0, we wouldn’t have managed it,” a less than impressed Rekdal told VG. When asked by TV2 if he got his tactics wrong he replied by asking the hapless hack “Do you think our tactic was for us to be that bad?”. The more serious pundits are getting annoyed with Rekdal for these repeated outbursts, but we here at NFN find them terrifically entertaining. In fact, so much so that while we generally like Aalesund we’re almost hoping they lose these days just to see what kind of verbal smackdown Rekdal has in store for his squad this time. Highlights.
At Sør Arena the battle between Start and Odd wasn’t quite the barnstormer it could have been, but the fairytale-story of Start-youngster Mads Stokkelien continues as the 19 year old popped up with a late equalizer for the second game in a row, as he made it 1-1 in the 84th minute. Add the hat-trick he scored in the cup last week and you have a pretty decent fortnight for a young forward. “If someone had told me that I’d score five goals for the senior team in three games two weeks ago I wouldn’t have believed it,” the understandably ecstatic Stokkelien said after the game. Odd will feel hard done by as they had a player very harshly sent off, and their manager Dag-Eilev Fagermo displayed his usual charm when he told the media that “the sending off was the only reason Start got a point”. Highlights.
The NFN prediction-department rarely gets anything right, but in this particular case some credit must surely be handed out: Just as we predicted, Lillestrøm managed to pick up their first win of the season against Strømsgodset. In spite of going down 1-0 early on Henning Berg’s men showed admirable character to turn the game in their favor and the 2-1 win was richly deserved. Goalscorer Nosa Igiebor was quick to credit the whatever from high atop the thing, telling TV2 that “It wasn’t because we were good, it was the grace of God”. Highlights.
22. May 2009 at 3:59 pm
My personal feelings about this round:
Lyn disappointed me. Why? Well, because they only have -one- simple task to do in Tippeligaen that anyone outside their club cares about, and that is to actually beat Vålerenga twice a year. OK, if they can win the second match come autumn, it’ll do.
Odd has actually made a new secret overall goal, which is to get the world record in playing consecutive 1-1 games when away. It’s a strange thing to aspire for, but then again, considering everything else that happens, it still comes across as practically normal. To Fagermo’s defence, it would seem that most coaches these days would say something equally charming after what was arguably two strict yellow cards (Imagine what Rekdal would have said, for instance). And Fevang seems to grow even stronger in his role as defender.
I don’t know, but perhaps Steinar Nilsen used the half-time break to once and for all beat into his players that they actually need to make an effort against “small” teams. Of course, give them one or two victories, and they’ll be back to their old, usual “We’re Brann, we’ve won the match before it’s even played” attitude. I’m willing to bet at least 15 NKR on this.
I take the blame for the LSK victory. I forgot to tell a player from Godset that I have personal contact with, that they -had- to win against the yellow demons from the 6th circle of Hell; or else I’d personally come to their next practice and sing through all this years Eurovision songs if they failed. Sometimes, you just have to motivate through fear. So, my fault, won’t happen again.
All the arguing and whatnot aside, Jon Knudsen gave me goosebumps with some of his saves. If he could just skip the “Sometimes brilliant, sometimes a blind grandmother” syndrome that most of the Norwegian top keepers seems to be afflicted with, I see no reason at all not to put him on our national team.
Molde, after a nice start, seems to have figured out that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, and returned into last season, where they kept playing so many great matches without winning. Now they only need to figure out that this way of playing is actually broken, and needs fixing…
Twitter: fjordball
Says:
22. May 2009 at 5:29 pm
I have no trouble admitting it: I’m biased. I just don’t like Fagermo, he gives off intolerably bad vibes. Rekdal on the other hand is hilarious, even though as you point out they say pretty much the same things.
I think you should go to the ‘godset training-camp and sing some eurovision, you’ll probably get headbutted by Marcus Pedersen but it would be worth it. The Romanian entry in particular would probably resonate with footballers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwyuOU-OdQw).
Knudsen has had his wobbles this season as well let’s not forget, but on current form you have to say he’s the one who looks the least likely to screw up. Jarstein really needs to stop pretending to be Espen Johnsen, it isn’t doing anyone any good.
Haha, come on, Molde were good, when you lose points to a Tommy Knarvik header you know the Gods are against you.
22. May 2009 at 7:28 pm
Watched the oslo derby and have to say the quality of the two teams was pretty poor. VIF have a really good team on paper but maybe that is why they underachieve so much. Hagen is clearly finished and Muri is not upto the necessary standard whilst without Freidheim Holm they show little invention up front where it matters. Kristofer Hæstad and Dawda Leigh were carrying that team at times and with doffen only recently recapturing his form its no wonder VIF have stuggled so badly.
On a side note it was interesting to see that Teddy Bjarnason, a player whom we had high hopes for at my team Celtic, could only merit a place on the Lyn bench… not sure what that says about our youth system that he was the standout player… but i thought he had been doing well?
22. May 2009 at 11:20 pm
Lars, I don’t really blame you as such. Sometimes, two people can say pretty much the exactly same thing, yet come off as two completely different persons. And of course, I’m naturally a bit inclined to defend Fagermo because of my particular Odd bias. If he’d been coaching LSK, I’d go after him with both barrels if he as much as implied a hint of negativity.
And you may have misunderstood my Molde comments, probably thanks to poor wording on my part. My point was that the whole “dominate the game but not score” thing you talked about isn’t even new for this season, it was Molde’s “curse” most of last season as well. So yes, I too aknowledge they played well on Friday, and I hope I got my point across better this time.
23. May 2009 at 10:32 am
Greetings from the land where the sun never sets!!
When I got off the plane in Oslo, I heard an interview with the Viking team manager. If my Norwegian was correct, he said their goal keeper had made some mistakes, but overall had made many great plays for his club. He could not think of any at that time.
23. May 2009 at 3:48 pm
Martin: Vålerenga don’t really have a good team on paper, they just have a team that our biggest newspapers like to portray as being really good.
Their goalie is ok, their defenders are all rubbish, they have one promising winger, one inefficient winger, two grossly overrated central midfielders, one promising forward and one over-the-hill forward. That’s their starting eleven, on the bench are one unfit Serbian winger, one over-the-hill forward and a host of somewhat promising children.
This is a team that has actually picked up a lot more points than they’ve deserved so far, and it would not surprise me at all if they end up battling relegation. Their defending in particular… well, it just makes the games worth watching.