Tippeliga rounds are coming thick and fast, and the market is in severe danger of being flooded. The issue is in no way helped by the fact that Rosenborg are running away with the league, while everyone else just look a bit knackered. So, with the league currently a less than entrancing event in purely sporting terms, we need some good old soap-opera to keep it interesting. Enter The Somewhat Special One, Kjetil Rekdal..
Because even if his team isn’t firing on all cylinders, it seems you can usually trust “Reka” himself to cause a bit of a stirr. It all started 39 minutes into the encounter between Brann and Aalesund when AaFK wide-man Demar Phillips was clipped on his way through by the last defender, but the ref was far away and had the sun in his eyes so no foul was awarded. Phillips, Rekdal and anyone else connected to AaFK were unimpressed, as there was a clear foul committed and it should have been a red card. At half time there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the tunnel, Brann midfielder Eirik Bakke apparently lambasted Phillips for diving (presumably Bakke had about as good a view of the incident as the ref). The second half was played, Brann won 2-1, and Bakke stuck to his guns in the post match interview, opining that Phillips dived and that Rekdal should stop whinging. As it happened, Rekdal was nearby and took umbrage, having been told by journalists with access to a television that it wasn’t a dive at all. The tremendously entertaining exchange that followed was picked up by cameras and microphones, with Rekdal telling Bakke that “You don’t need to accuse us of diving when we don’t dive”, then telling him to “Shut up and watch the TV”, “Shup up and sod off”, and then for the prize: “Go away, you’re a drunkard, go drink some more”. That last one in particular seemed to hit a nerve, and Bakke had to be physically restrained and rather nonsensically called Rekdal a “fat pig” as a teammate escorted him down the tunnel (video of the incident to be found here). Superbly entertaining stuff, but obviously way out of order and Rekdal later went into Brann’s dressing room to apologize and explain himself. Not that Bakke seemed particularly impressed with his efforts (video here). This being Norway, there will be no shortage of sanctimonious wailing in the press about this and few will probably want to admit publicly just how amusing it all was. The game, incidentally, was one of Brann’s better performances this season, while Aalesund really need to work on their defending.
The other highlight of the round was rather more positive, as Start’s young striker Mads Stokkelien hit the headlines again. This time the 19 year old came up with a stunning overhead volley to net his fifth Tippeliga goal in just eight appearances. Now, a babyfaced finisher who seems like a well-behaved lad off the pitch as well, we’ve heard this story before haven’t we? The Ole Gunnar Solskjær-comparisons are as inevitable as they are premature, but even though we haven’t seen that much of him yet you have to say that this kid looks a bit special. The victims of Stokkelien’s right boot this time was Sandefjord, who fought the good fight but eventually slumped to a 3-2 defeat against a Start-side that looked vastly improved from their little mishap at Telenor Arena.
At Lerkendal a resurgent Stabæk had billed themselves as the team that could end Rosenborg’s unbeaten start to the season. But as many other teams have discovered, the 2009-edition of RBK is a pretty damned good one. Again they did what they needed to do, if not a whole lot more, and a 1-0 win for the hosts was a pretty fair reflection on how the game went. After the game Stabæk manager Jan Jönsson attempted to point out that RBK haven’t won the league quite yet, which is true, but the question remains: Who’s going to stop them?
..and since there’s no law against using the same link twice in one week, that brings us neatly on to Molde, who just about managed to sneak past Lillestrøm with a scruffy goal in injury time. Bad luck for Henning Berg’s boys, impressive from Molde who are coping remarkably well with this pretty punishing section of the fixture list.
One team that isn’t coping at all is Lyn, who after picking up a handy point at the weekend were thoroughly pummeled by Fredrikstad. Only a goalkeeping masterclass from Kenny Stamatopoulos kept the score down for Lyn as FFK eventually won the game 2-1. “We were buttf*cked”, conceded Lyn-manager Kent Bergersen. The Lyn-fans for their part aren’t particularly impressed with Bergersen, and have published a letter to the club demanding his sacking. The letter is said to have been met by shock and disbelief in Lyn’s offices, as no one at the club were previously aware that they had fans.
For the second time in a week Vålerenga’s star striker Mohammed “Moa” Abdellaoue scored a goal in front of a bunch of visiting scouts, and one suspects Vålerenga’s fax-machine is in for a busy summer. Bodø/Glimt followed up their point against Lillestrøm with a fairly solid performance, but Moa’s late 2-1 winner left them once again heading home without any points.
Uwe Rösler’s Viking picked up a crafty 1-0 win up North as they treated Tromsø to a bit of a sucker punch. By all accounts the visitors spent most of the game in their own half, but one of the few times they did venture into enemy territory their raid yielded a precious goal, and that was enough.
Lastly, in the most predictable game of the round, the Odd (the best home side in the league so far) beat Strømsgodset (the worst travelers in the league so far), albeit with a surprisingly narrow margin. Still, 2-1 gives you as many points as 5-0, and the fact that Odd are still in the top3 after 15 games is nothing short of remarkable.
June 26th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Actually, until Rekdal came on, I felt that this round in particular was dominated by good keeperplay. Jarstein has now played 5 games in a row without conceding a goal – although no doubt it’s nice to have the best defenders around to help him. Jon Knutsen certainly did his part in avoiding the defeat to be more than 1-0. Thomas Myhre did some matchwinning saves, likewise with Arason. And of course Stamapolos, who probably wasted the match of his life on a rather subpar team. Should’ve saved that performance for when it could have made the difference, Stama (although it almost did)!
As far as I could tell, it was pretty much only Brenne’s 1-0 goal for Odd where the keeper could really be blamed as such, and Moldskred made up for it by having several class acts later in the game. And I’m not sure, but it did seem to me the sun -could- have been a bit disturbing as he was trying to figure out exactly where the ball was going.
So, the keepers in the Tippeliga – Norwegian and foreigh – are actually doing well, or at least they’ve stopped the blunder run that seemed to run a bit rampant.
Personally, I think it was more of a statistical fluke, that run. I mean, blunders can and will happen in Tippeligaen, but usually they’re spread out a bit better, and thus not noticed so much. But sometimes it happens all at once, and at that point, the press screams in scandal-type fonts. And now, a few weeks later when things have turned OK again, they pretty much just aknowledge the keepers are doing OK, and hope that we can forget their deafening cries of wolf back then. Something to think about, eh?
June 26th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
I wish I could think of something brilliant to say, but alas, my thoughts are like most of the teams’ play, a little stale.
It seems we are now seeing the Tippe teams for what they are, contenders, pretenders or also rans. Most of the fun in the second half will come from teams fighting for the Europa Cup slots and those fighting to stay out of relegation. Tromso is trying to improve their lot by making a bid for Vegaard Bratten. The Alta striker is leading the Adecco in scoring. He was a property of TIL until this year when they let him go on a free transfer. Oops!
Alta says he is not for sell. But, everybody needs money. So if the offer is “right”, Bratten will become one of the first moves to improve the chances for an also ran team.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Also, the whole Rekdal situation is getting a bit dull.
I mean, think about it. The annual “who says the most really outrageous stuff” league is as decided as RBK winning the normal league. Rekdal is miles ahead of his opponents, and as such, it’s just not as fun listening to the other contenders this season, since we know that they can never win anyway. Or as mr. Sivertsen would say it: Who’s going to stop him?
June 26th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Haha, the “situation” as in the rampant moralizing by self-important media douchebags who should know better, that is really getting dull. You know things have gone a bit strange when Arild Stavrum is the only one making any sense.
The incident in itself was top top entertainment, especially the video of him attempting to apologize to a sulk-tastic Bakke was priceless. “Eirik, hvor er han? Skal vi sloss?” = Quote of the season so far.
Anyway, that a good observation on the goalkeepers. Looking at Stamatopoulos I _yet again_ have to ask wtf the guys in charge of Tromsø are playing at? Why hand Ramovic that utterly ludicrous contract when you’ve got a keeper like that waiting in the wings? I mean, Ramovic virtually toured the country this winter and everyone said the same thing: “You’re good, but if you think we’re going to pay you 4 mill per year you’re off your trolley mate”. Then Tromsø, being Tromsø, charitably stepped in.
The Braaten thing is another big wtf-moment from the Tromsø-camp, as Al points out. Anyone who saw him play last season could see that the guy has potential, yet they let him go for free and will now end up paying a solid sum to get him back.
No wonder their in such a mess financially.
(and I haven’t even mentioned the bloody Bryan Adams-concert..)
June 27th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Hello from Brazil! Do you think Rosenborg may slump a little due too many games (Europa League + domestic) in too little time? Or do they have enough squad depth to face it?
June 27th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I think it is hypocritical of the media to condem Rekdal when i bet that they all had a collective orgasm on the pure awsomenes of the incident in terms of that it would help ratings and paper sale.
Also i found Rekdal to be entertaining Bakke was the dork he spoke without haveing any clue about what actually happed on the pitch and he did drink and drive. Meaning he consciously choose to get shitface and then put other folks life in danger.
I think Rosenborg has the squad dept but playing 2 games a week maybe even 3 sometimes well it will be a challenge. I also don`t think Molde shud be counted out just yet they are 7 points behind but if Rosenborg start messing up then they will be close real fast.
June 27th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Expedito: One of Rosenborg’s traditional strengths used to be exactly the depth of their squad. They were the only ones who could make (not to mention afford keeping) enough good players that if you put out the entire B-team on the field, they’d be almost as likely to win a league game as the normal eleven people.
Of course, today’s situation isn’t quite as extreme as that, but RBK has been keeping on winning even though they’ve had a fair amount of people out for injuries or cards at times. And while the players aren’t the same today as during RBKs high-time dominance (except Roar Strand), the RBK system – a system designed to make RBK fit for the European matches – remains in place; meaning that those guys are at least in less danger of a slump than any other team in our league.
Sivertsen: I’m not sure I’d go quite as far as calling it almost nothing like Stavrum, but at the very least I would say that Bakke’s insistence on the situation being filming, especially considering that it was a very clear foul (even all the moralising journalists agree on this)… You might not use ugly words or phrases as such, but the accusation itself is still nothing less than a huuuge provocation. Shouldn’t there be sanctions for -that- kind of thing?
So yeah, Rekdal might have gone a bit far, but heck, if someone kept on saying one of my players was cheating, when I knew he wasn’t, and when the press around me keep saying the footage shows I’m right… I’m not sure I wouldn’t have said the same thing. And I am usually in control of my own emotions.
June 28th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I just wish some of these dimwits would have the testicular fortitude to tell the truth: These things happen in football, if you put fiercely competitive men with big egos together in any kind of competition fights will break out from time to time. The only unusual aspect of this is that it got caught up by cameras and microphones.
Also, Bakke is clearly lying about not having said anything particularly scathing to Phillips, but then what to you expect, the guy is clearly a graceless prat of the highest order.