Well, terrific if you like your games full of goals and incidents. No so much if you like, youknow, vaguely competent defenders.
After a couple of pretty stale rounds the Tippeliga perked up a bit in round 17, with goals flying in at a fairly bonkers rate of 4,4 goals per game. Still, no matter how hard the ever-excitable TV2 tried to talk it up, it was hard for the discerning viewer to watch the weekend’s highlights without being slightly troubled by the hopelessly poor defending displayed by most of the Tippeliga outfits.
All goals from the 17th round of the Tippeliga here.
Nowhere was this more glaring than up North, where Bodø/Glimt tried their darndest but were undone by a combination of Molde’s surging counter-attacks and sensationally bad defending across the board. “My God, Bodø/Glimt, are they all playing for free?” was NFN’s head honcho Egan Richardson’s initial reaction to Glimt’s efforts when he was shown the highlights, and you have to say it’s a fair question. Yet again, Glimt’s manager Kåre Ingebrigtsen blamed the referee, and yet again it’s easily the most ridiculous stance he could possibly take. The 4-2 win takes Molde to within four points of leaders Rosenborg, but Erik Hamrén’s men have one game in hand. Bodø/Glimt are in the relegation-zone, and since their defenders currently have enough trouble coping with gravity, never mind the opposing team, this is unlikely to change any time soon.
The atmosphere at Ullevaal this Sunday should have been loaded with irony, as two teams from the posh Western bit of Oslo came together with a heavy cloud of financial woe following both of them. Of course, this being a home-game for Lyn, there was no atmosphere at all, ironic or otherwise. On the pitch Lyn continue their quest to become the ultimate example that not losing isn’t enough in itself, as they recorded their ninth draw of the season. Those nine draws clearly show that the team is competitive, but with only one win to go with those draws the total points-tally remains unimpressive. 2-2 against a somewhat resurgent Stabæk is not a bad result at all, but Lyn need wins, not more admirable draws. Manager Kent Bergersen, who would have been under pressure if the club could afford to sack him, has admitted that unless they get a win next week against Bodø/Glimt they’re pretty much screwed. Without wanting to kick a man who is clearly down, NFN reckons they’re screwed either way.
At Viking stadion it was, as predicted, onwards and upwards for Uwe Rösler’s Viking. This recent upturn in fortunes for his team as seen the teutonic tactician fall further back in the sack-race, after having received the dreaded vote of confidence a couple of weeks ago. Viking’s fourth goal in their 4-2 battering of Lillestrøm was emblematic of their recent good spell: Midfielder Tomasz Sokolowski thumped home a superb driving volley from range. It’s no coincidence that Viking’s upturn in fortunes has coincided with “Soko”’s return to fitness, as the former Lyn-man adds much needed drive, leadership and vision to Viking’s midfield. The feeling in Stavanger has been that Soko was the missing piece in Viking’s puzzle, and judging by the last couple of games they could be right.
Kjetil Rekdal had an uncharacteristically quiet weekend as his Aalesund team snapped their four game losing streak with an absolutely crucial 3-2 win over Vålerenga. Rekdal for once managed to manouver his way through the press-zone without saying anything particularly infuriating, though he did at one point declare that he was Vålerenga through and through and that it felt a bit strange to lead a team against his former club. Aalesund-fans of course won’t care, as long as the man they’ve come to worship keeps the good ship AaFK on a steady course for the 2010 Tippeliga.
Down South Start held Ronny Deila’s plucky darlings Strømsgodset to a 2-2 draw, a result that’s pretty handy for both teams really when you consider the circumstances. The big news for Start-fans however is that midfield maestro Christian Bolanos has been cleared to play for Start again after the club got into a bit of a tiff with the Costa Rican football association over Bolanos’ participation (or rather his non-participation) in the Gold Cup. Now Southerners will just have to hope Team USA get knocked out at the earliest possible convenience so they get their defensive lynchpin Clarence Goodson back as well..
Surprise-package Odd Grenland have the best home-record in the league, yet before this round they hadn’t managed to pick up three points on any of their travels. There’s nothing like a trip to a Sandefjord-side in mid-implosion to put an end to a run like that, and the 2-1 win for Odd did have a sense of inevitability to it. The game was fraught with controversy though, as all three goals were contentious. Sandefjord’s opener was off-side, Odd’s equalizer may not have crossed the line and Odd’s injury time winner came from a penalty that not all refs would have given. Thankfully the game was aired on state-owned TV-channel NRK rather than the controversy-crazed TV2, who still seem to think that the public can’t tell the difference between casual ref-bashing and proper journalism (not that anyone at NFN know much about the latter either, it must be said).
Finally, an eventful round was drawn to a close in Bergen as a Brann-game yet again turned into a bit of a brawl, remembered more for nasty challenges than actual football. The home-side eventually defeated Fredrikstad 2-1 after a dramatic 90th minute match winner from unfancied Icelandic striker Armann Björnsson, after Azar Karadas had equalized Fredrikstad’s 1-0 lead. There is a strange kind of symbolism in the fact that both Brann’s goals were scored by guys who are hard as nails, but who would struggle to do ten keepie uppies with a beach ball. This physical approach seems to be working for Brann who are now fourth, causing depression and distress amongst football-loving neutrals all over the country.
July 7th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Lars,
Good as always.
Start is in for a scare. Goodson was injured in the US’s first Gold Cup game. He took a knock to his knee and will not play tomorrow against Honduras. (BTW, Honduras team player Ramon Nunez is a former youth teammate of Alta’s Jay Needham and Start’s Hunter Freeman.) I think Goodson will be fine, but don’t expect him back in Norway until the end of July.
As we approach the break,I think all of the teams are showing their true colors, which causes me to worry about Brann’s game against Molde. Although they are in second, I think Molde are playing the best football in the Tippe at this time. I just hope they leave some of that down south as they journey north for their Cup game Wednesday.
One question. I read where players can’t move from one Norwegian team to another until August 1st. Is that correct? I thought everyone could move July 15 when the transfer window opens. That having been asked. It seems that teams needing to “strengthen” their lineups should have already started talking to teams about transfers (Tromso and Alta for Braaten comes to mind.) Do you think we will see movement during the break or is money in too short a supply for very many changes?
July 7th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
No Norwegian club can sign players befor august 1
The transfer window opens later then the rest of europe and closes later to.
July 7th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Al: Short version is that almost everyone are broke and there is unlikely to be too much movement.
Of course, with the mechanics of the marketplace also applying to footballers (to a certain extent anyway), the fact that no one appear to have any money will push prices way down. If clubs can find any kind of money there should be some bargains to be had.
Molde really do look excellent, they rely heavily on counter-attacking but even if teams sit deep to deny them space they have so much creativity in midfield you fancy them to be able to carve open almost any defense. Senegalese midfielder Makhtar Thioune is a joy to watch, there is no way that guy will stay in the Tippeliga for long.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:43 am
i don`t know Thioune will struggle to get a permit for England, but i guess Holland or France could be a good destination for him.
July 8th, 2009 at 8:51 am
While I wish Vålerenga all the worst, I almost started having a glimmer of sympathy for them in that game, until I remembered that it’s Enga. Aalesund’s defence were the usual game of lotto that’s lost them so many matches this season, and with some more effiecency and luck (and a little less great keeperplay from Lindegaard), Enga might well have scored five.
Also, had to laugh at Erik Hagen’s now rather stupid rush at the judge. Sure, he should most definitely have had that free kick (the fact that I agree to it says something about how obvious it was), but if there is one thing the referees have been consistent at this season, it’s carding whoever’s dumb enough to run straight up in their face and trying to shout their ears off. But then again, Hagen’s never struck me as the brightest bulb.
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I’m not exactly sure what Nils Johan Semb does in TV2, since he’s not generally the kind of person who likes to shout scandals all the time, and instead likes to do a thoughtful analysis. Anyway, I found myself agreeing with him that the Senegalese striker trio of Molde are all excellent in everything they do, -except- actually scoring goals. Not because they’re technically unable to (quite the opposite), but they’re not good at figuring out and picking the best possible solution, the one that is most likely to make a goal out of. To have the same kind of goal-finding instinct as Brattbakk, or Rushfeldt; or more currently, Kovacs. That Diouf has 8 goals so far is more due how Molde creates so many chances that even he’s got to put some of them.
Yeah, sure, Semb was using examples from the last game only. But Molde -is- pretty infamous for playing great but being ineffective (and has been so ever since last season), and one has to wonder if those Senegalese players couldn relax on practising all their wonderful, technical moves; and instead take a few lessons from f.ex. Rune Ertsås, who only needed 3 minutes to make himself known against Glimt.
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And if this Tippeliga shows anything, it’s just how important it is to remember the very foundation of football: That you need to score goals. Not necessarily that many in any particular game (though that too helps), but very, very regularly. Case in point, Odd Grenland and Lyn. (Hey, you didn’t think you were to get a comment from me that didn’t talk about my favourite team?)
Odd’s let in 22 goals this season, Lyn’s let in 25. But Odd has done two things Lyn hasn’t:
a) In only -one- game this season, Odd hasn’t scored at all.
b) In every single home game this season, Odd has scored two or more goals.
Need I say more?
I also remember something I said about Odd after their game against Brann this spring, how they simply refuse to lose a game if the opponent scores first. Man, has that been a spot-on comment or what? I should hire myself out as a football expert. :p
July 9th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
And by the way, am I right in that this round of the cup was so utterly predictable (except perhaps that Berglund scored four goals) that it too will mostly be passed in silence? Not that I’m complaining if you do. I mean, I look at the results, and it’s so incredibly non-upsetting results, it makes me yawn and don’t care about whether or not the games were actually any good.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:15 am
In a word: Yes. As you say, it’s exceptionally dull stuff. Also, as you may have deducted from my general lack of effort lately, I’m rather busy these days and don’t really have the time.
Thing will be back to normal in August though, so no worries, this isn’t a permanent slump.
July 10th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Heh, pretty much in the same situation. Working on a semi-famous tourist spot doesn’t give you much vacation this month, I can tell you that.
By the way, as it happens, I do have a few ideas of some articles that I think would suit this blog pretty fine. Not previews or reviews (I’m not interested in making wrong predictions all the time), but rather some random observations on certain aspects of this season, as well as the media coverage of it.
You already know what I’m capable of when it comes to writing*, so I’ll simply ask this: Interested?
* Strictly speaking, I’m actually capable of much better in terms of grammar and choice of words. But that’s when I bother taking the time to refine and review the paragraphs into a proper article. When simply making comments like now, I pretty much just put the stuff out raw, only removing the most heinous spelling errors. Still, the raw stuff should give you a hint, eh?