Squad for the WC qualifier against Scotland

Egil "Drillo" Olsen has presented his squad for the upcoming match against Scotland. Norway has a very tiny chance of qualifying, but only if they win every single of the three last matches.

Goalkeepers:
Rune A. Jarstein (Rosenborg)
Jon Knudsen (Stabæk)

Outfield players:
John Carew (Aston Villa)
Christian Grindheim (Heerenveen)
Brede Hangeland (Fulham)
Bjørn Helge Riise (Fulham)
Thorstein Helstad (Le Mans)
Kjetil Wæhler (AaB)
Daniel Braaten (Toulouse)
Morten Gamst Pedersen (Blackburn)
John Arne Riise (Roma)
Espen Ruud (OB)
Henning Hauger (Stabæk)
Erik Huseklepp (Brann)
Tom Høgli (Tromsø)
Steffen Iversen (Rosenborg)
Tore Reginiussen (Tromsø)
Per Ciljan Skjelbred (Rosenborg)
Fredrik Winsnes (Strømsgodset)
Trond Erik Bertelsen (Viking)
Simen Brenne (Odd Grenland)

Håvard Nordtveit to Nürnberg

The Norwegian defender Håvard Nordtveit will go on loan to the German team Nürnberg. The 19 year old is under contract with Arsenal, but has played for Lillestrøm the last five months to get more first team experience.

19th round

Aalesund 1-1 Fredrikstad

26th of July: Results

Vålerenga 0-3 Odd
Vålerenga's biggest loss at home since 2003.
Viking 5-2 Lyn
Lyn's goal keeper Stramatopoulos played his last match for the Oslo club, next week he will go on loan to Fredrikstad, which means that Stramatopoulos will play against Viking next week as well. Hopefully with a better result, though.
Sandefjord 1-1 Molde
Molde played well, but stumbled, and the dream of winning the league seems far away.
Brann 4-2 Bodø/Glimt
Another good match by Erik Huseklepp, but he claims that he isn't thinking about a possible transfer. Bodø/Glimt was not pleased with the penalty that gave Brann the 1-0 lead. "No-one in yellow understands why it is a penalty, but that's how it is to play at Brann Stadion," was Kåre Ingebrigtsen's comment after the match.

Tromsø 2-1 Strømsgodset
Rushfelt was involved in this comic penalty:

But got his revenge with this great goal:


Rosenborg 2-1 Lillestrøm
Rosenborg was the better team, but needed a penalty to score the winning goal.




All goals from the 19th round so far:


Tonight: Aalesund - Fredrikstad

Start 2-2 Stabæk

The visitors from Bærum were up by two with just five minutes left to play when Start scored two goals in two minutes, 2-2 was a fair results for both teams as Start had a good first half and Stabæk had a good second half.

Apart from that the terrible back-pass from Petter Bruer Hanssen (and the following save by Kenneth Høie) and Bent Hulsker's horrible new mustache are both worth noticing in the highlights below. Plus the lovely lady celebrating the first Start goal.

Team: Stabæk

If you don't count their debut season in the top division in 1995, or the year when they were relegated, in 2004, Stabæk has never finished Tippeligaen below 6th place. The last two years they've won silver and gold in the league and they also played in the cup final of 2008, but lost to Vålerenga.


Stabæk is known for playing attacking and attractive football. In 2008 they scored 58 goals in 26 matches.

Alanzinho, 9 goals,
Veigar Páll Gunnarsson, 10 goals,
Johan Andersson, 12 goals
Daniel Nannskog, 16 goals

Before the 2009 season they sold both Alanzinho and Gunnarsson, but borrowed the Japanese midfielder Daigo Kobayashi from Omiya Ardija, a player that has meant a lot for them so far, and has almost managed to fill the gap after the two players.

Telenor Arena, an indoor stadium with a capacity of 15000, was finished before this season, and is now the home ground of Stabæk

Norwegian Teams in Europe: results

Stabæk 4-0 Tirana. Stabæk had no problems against the Albanians. Daigo Kobayashi had three assists, the central defender Pontus Segerström scored two goals, Fredrik Berglund and Pontus Farnerud scored one each, and Stabæk is now ready to meet the Danish side FC Kopenhagen in the next round.

(http://theballisround.co.uk was present at Telenor Arena, and has written a longer post about the match. Read it here)

Qarabakh 1-0 Rosenborg. A wonderous free kick by Rashed Sadigov made Rosenborg's face their first loss of the season and they are now knocked out of the Europe League.

Tromsø 4-1 Dinamo Minsk. Tromsø had a 1-0 at half time, but no control of the match, Dinamo Minsk had had several chances, however, in the 65th minute Stanislav Prahun was sent of after his second yellow card, and the match exploded, Tromsø scored three more goals, Dinamo Minsk scored one and had another player sent off.
Tromsø will play Slaven Belupo from Croatia next Thursday

Bjørn Helge Riise almost ready for Fulham

The younger brother of Roma player John Arne Riise, will, according to db.no, sign for Fulham on Wednesday.

Lillestøm and Fulham have come to an agreement, and only the medical test is left.

The 26 year old midfielder will join international team-mates Brede Hangeland and Erik Nevland.

Manchester United signs Mame Biram Diouf

A dozen of clubs have been interested in Molde's star striker, specially after this performance last week, and today Molde announces on their web page that they have agreed with Manchester United. The Senegalese will stay on loan in Molde until January.

Alex Ferguson gave this cryptic message from Kuala Lumpur: “We signed a young player yesterday from Norway, who we’ve been looking at for two years,”


This transfer reminds us about another Molde-Man Unt transfer, 13 years ago:

Ole Gunnar Solskjær was not much older than Diouf, when he signed for the English club.

16th of July: Results

Rosenborg - Karabakh 0-0
----------------Rune Almenning Jarstein--------------------
Mikael Lustig, Kris Stadsgaard, Alejandro Lago, Micke Dorsin
----------Alexander Tettey-- Anthony Annan---------------
Per Ciljan Skjelbred----Steffen Iversen-----Trond Olsen
------------------------Rade Prica---------------------------

Before the match Per Ciljan Skjelbred said that 7-0 would be a good result, but Rosenborg played one of the worst matches of the season. They had lots of possession, but was unable to score against the Albanian team.

Erik Hamren was not pleased with his teams performance.


Dinamo Minsk - Tromsø 0-0
---------------Marcus Sahlman------------------------------------
Tom Høgli---Tore Reginiussen--Douglas Sequeira,----Kevin Larsen
Lars Iver Strand --Ruben Y. Jenssen--Tommy Knarvik --Joel Lindpere
-------------Morten Moldskred---------- Sigurd Rushfeldt-----------

Dinamo Minsk started best, but Tromsø fought their way back into the match, and had a couple of chances to score, however 0-0 was a fair result for both teams.

Looking back: 5th round, the worst dives so far.

Norwegian football does not really have a history of diving, but inspired by Morten Gamst Pedersen a couple of teams started the season with some terrible acting

Adressa.no collected a few dives in this compilation:

Team: Start

The last years have been turbulent for the Kristiansand-team.
In 2005 they had a great comeback in tippeligaen and finished second, but two years later they were relegated again. In 2009 they are back in the top division, have surprised again and are currently at 4th place.



Much of the reason for this year's success must be the two players Mads Stokkelien and Christian Bolaños who has entertained the Start fans by scoring some beautiful goals:




IK Start has won the top division twice, in 1980 and 1978.

Norwegian teams in Europe

Stabæk played against the Albania team Tirana yesterday, the final result was 1-1, Daigo Kobayashi scored an important away goal, and Stabæk should now manage to go through to the next round of the Champions League Qualification.


Rosenborg plays Qarabagh tonight at Lerkendal.
Marek Sapara is not going to play, as Rosenborg hopes to sell him during the transfer window.
Likely starting 11:
----------------Rune Almenning Jarstein--------------------
Mikael Lustig, Kris Stadsgaard, Alejandro Lago, Micke Dorsin
----------Alexander Tettey-- Anthony Annan---------------
Per Ciljan Skjelbred-----------------------------Trond Olsen
---------------------Steffen Iversen-------------------------
------------------------Rade Prica---------------------------

18th round

Lyn 0-1 Bodø/Glimt
Lillestrøm 1-1 Aalesund
Odd Grenland 1-2 Start
Hunter Freeman scored a lucky goal from 40m

Strømsgodset 0-1 Rosenborg
Fredrikstad 1-2 Sandefjord
Molde 5-2 Brann
It took Mame Biram Diouf 9 minutes to score a perfect hat-trick. 17 minutes later he scored another goal. A perfect chip from Huseklepp and a goal by Björnson was not enough for Brann, and in the last minute of the match Pepe Pate Diouf scored to make the result 5-2

10th of July

• Rosenborg - Runavik 3-1. (Europa league first qualifying round)
  Impressive match by the underdog from the Faroe Islands, and a nice goal by Karoly Potemkin, but Rosenborg was by far the stronger team, and won comfortably 6-1 after two matches. (watch the high lights here)
• Odd Grenland - Fredrikstad 3-1 (The Norwegian Cup)
• Brann - Lyn 1-0. (The Norwegian Cup)
  This is not looking good for Lyn, bottom of the league and out of the cup, but at least they won't be kicked out of their stadium because of the financial problems, at least not yet.
• Kjetil Rekdal accepts the 10 000kr (£1000) fine and one match ban penalty after his verbal attack on Erik Bakke.
  It was after the Aalesund-Brann match earlier this year that Rekdal and Bakke had a verbal fight. Rekdal called Bakke an alcoholic, and clearly referred to the former Leeds player's drunk driving conviction from 2003.
  
  

Fredheim Holm signs for Aalborg

After five years in Vålerenga Fredheim Holm has signed for the Danish club Aalborg.

Daniel Fredheim Holm was the captain when Vålerenga won the cup last year. He also scored two goals in the final.


Norwegianfootballblog can't really see why Fredheim Holm would want to move to a club almost the same size as Vålerenga, but Daniel claims he just needed a change.

Vålerenga do not intent to buy a replacement for the 24-year-old.

Looking back: The round of the bloopers

Another compilation from adressa.no

The 8th round of Tippeligaen 2009 was the round where everything that could go wrong went wrong.

The Nutcracker

An adressa.no complication from a couple of weeks ago

Results:8th of July

Vålerenga 3-1 Mjøndalen IF
Stabæk 4-0 Lillestrøm
Sogndal 0-1 Aalesund
Alta IF 0-1 Molde

• No teams from Adeccoligaen through to the quarter finals
• Both of Stabæk's top scorers, Nannskog and Kobayashi, started on the bench, but the team had no problems against Lillestrøm, Fredrik Berglund scored 4(!) goals.
  

Johan Dahlin sold

Lyn has sold their young and promising goal keeper Johan Dahlin. After five years in Lyn the Swedish will now play for Malmö FF.

Lyn has big financial problems, and has to sell players to be able to survive as club.
They hope to extend the loan of Tromsø goalie Kenny Stamatopoulos, who after a couple of poor matches delivered this performance two weeks ago:

Poke in the eye

Bryne - Stavanger IF, Norwegian 1. division (Adeccoligaen)

While celebrating a goal Christian Gauseth accidentally pokes Karl Morten Håland in the eye.



Christian Gauseth’s comment:
“I did acctually feel my fingers slip into his eye ball. It was almost like pressing a finger down a pack of butter.

Team: Odd Grenland

• 29 points was pretty much the amount of points Odd Grenland was planning on having at the end of the season, but because of their great form at home Odd is now on third place in Tippeligaen.
• Odd is Norway's oldest football club, but has never won the league.
• Rosenborg was originally called Odd, as a tribute to this club.
• No club has won the cup as many times as Odd, 12 times. However, except from the victory in 2000, they haven't won it since before the 2nd world war.
  
• Odd's Mascot, the bumblebee Brodd, became famous after hitting the opponent's striker in the face
  

16th round: Stabæk-Brann

Amazing goal by Huseklepp!

(spotted at adressa.no)

Best goals from the 17th round

Spotted at adressa.no

(Lillestrøm hopes to sell Bjørn Helge Riise during the transfer window. John Arne Riise's brother has had a good season so far, and acording to Romeriket Blad is Fulham among the interested clubs)

Match: Brann - Fredrikstad

Brann — Fredrikstad 2-1 (0-1)

0-1 Birkir Már Sævarsson (own goal 5), 1-1 Azar Karadas (65), 2-1 Armann Smari Björnsson (90).

• Fredrikstad combined great in offence, and did at least deserve a draw.
• Lots of hard tackles, several really good ones as well.
• How is it possible to miss a chance like this?
  (adressa.no)
• Tijan Jaiteh missed on open goal, and Huseklepp had a penalty saved, they should both be glad it didn't cost them the victory.
• Great play by Fredrikstad-goaly Erik Bråthen!
• Good use of substitutes by Steinar Nilsen, both Karadas and Björnson came in from the bench.
  

Team: Molde

Molde Fotballklubb

Molde has never won Tippeligaen, but has finished second four times in the last twenty years.
Kjell Inge Røkke is one of the investors, and Aker stadium is named after his company. Molde is most famous for being the first professional club of Ole Gunnar Solskjær

Molde is the only challenge for Rosenborg this year, and they claim that they are going to fight until the last match in an attempt to win the league for the first time.


Rivals: Rosenborg, Aalesund

Team: Rosenborg

NFB will present all of the teams in the Tippeliga, and we'll start on the top of the league.

Rosenborg
Rosenborg Ballklub has won the league 15 times in the last 20 years.
The last time they won was in 2006, and they've been criticized for not preforming well enough in the last years, but after the installation of the Swedish manager Erik Hamren have things started looking better.


A combination of smart buys, talented local players, good coaching and great morale and attitude has led Rosenborg back on top of the league. They haven't lost a match since the pre-season, and are now in the prosess of qualifying for the Europe League.

Rosenborg has had success in Europe before: (wikipedia.org)

"Rosenborg participated in the group phase of the Champions League eleven times in the twelve years between 1995 to 2006. Eight of them were consecutive (from 1995 to 2002), which was a record until 2004, when Manchester United qualified for the group phase for a ninth successive year.

Rosenborg have on two occasions managed to progress beyond the first group stage of the Champions League. In the 1996-97 season, they were heading for an early exit, but with A.C. Milan squandering valuable points, the stage was set for a deciding match at San Siro. Rosenborg defeated Milan 2-1, ousting the Italians and putting themselves in the quarter finals, where they lost 3-1 on aggregate against Juventus. In the 1999-00 season, Rosenborg won their group to secure a place in the second group stage. The most memorable game was away against Borussia Dortmund, who were defeated 3-0.

Other highlights include the 2-0 win versus Real Madrid and the 5-1 victory over Olympiacos, both in the 1997-98 season. There have also been some dismal performances, particularly against French teams. Rosenborg lost 0-5 to Lyon in 2002 and were crushed 2-7 by Paris Saint-Germain in 2000."

Rivals: Molde, Lillestrøm, Brann and Vålerenga.

Has a very strong squad, but a lot of attractive players that might be sold if the club gets good enough offers.

Results: 5th of July

Tippeligaen:
Bodø/Glimt 2 - 4 Molde
Viking 4 - 2 Lillestrøm
Start 2 - 2 Strømsgodset
Lyn 2 - 2 Stabæk
Aalesund 3 - 2 Vålerenga

Norwegian Cup:
Rosenborg 2 - 0 Løv-Ham
Tromsø 2 - 0 Bryne

• Another win for Molde.

• Odd Grenland will be pleased with Vålerenga, Start and Stabæk's lost points.
  

• Both Rosenborg and Tromsø are through to the quarter finals of the Norwegian cup, as expected against two small teams.

Summary

These are the scores after 16 rounds. The title race is between Rosenborg and Molde, as the rest of the teams have fallen behind. Rosenborg is still undefeated, but the mid-Norwegian team will have to sell players during this transfer window, and it's hard to tell how that is going to affect the team.

Molde and Rosenborg will play each other on the 27th of September, in what might be the deciding match of the season.



















Both Lyn, Stabæk and Bodø/Glimt are struggling financially. I'll keep you updated on the issue.
Stabæk has already cut the wages of the players by 9% and let Christian Keller go on free transfer.

Several young Norwegian players are likely to be sold to a bigger league during this window

Mohammed Abdellaoue(Vålerenga), Alexander Tettey(Rosenborg), Per Ciljan Skjelbred(Rosenborg) and Erik Huseklepp(Brann).

Sunderland are according to News of the world willing to place a £4 million bid on the Vålerenga striker, and Rosenborg has rejected several bids from the French club Rennes on Alexander Tettey.

Welcome

Welcome to this new Norwegian Football Blog.

This will be a place for information about the Norwegian Premier League, "Tippeligaen," the smaller leagues and Norwegian footballers in general.