Just when Lillestrøm were hurtling towards the abyss and looked set for an all-important last round-showdown with Aalesund, next season's LSK-manager Henning Berg starts his work early and pulls out a cracking result. Bastard!
Stabæk for their part celebrated their first ever title by humping a quite staggeringly poor Vålerenga-side 6-2 in their last ever game at Nadderud, Fredrikstad secured their place as runners-up with a win in Molde while relegation-battlers Aalesund and HamKam both put in thoroughly hapless performances against teams with very little to play for.
Bodø/Glimt 3 - 2 Strømsgodset
Brann 1 - 1 Tromsø
Lillestrøm 4 - 2 Rosenborg
Lyn 3 - 0 Aalesund
Molde 1 - 2 Fredrikstad
Stabæk 6 - 2 Vålerenga
Viking 3 - 0 HamKam
Good day
Lillestrøm
Stabæk may have dismantled Vålerenga and celebrated their first championship in their last ever game at Nadderud, but the real winners this weekend were Lillestrøm. Showing the kind of team-spirit and belief that's been lacking at Åråsen all season they came from behind twice to beat an in-form Rosenborg team. Annoyingly, this was probably just a glimpse of what Henning Berg will be able to do with Lillestrøm, and with such a competent man at the helm the thugs from Romerike should be a real force next season.
Berg: Annoyingly competent
Stabæk
Stabæk-guru Ingebrigt Steen-Jensen summed it all up brilliantly: "We've won the most games, we've lost the fewest, we've scored the most goals, we've conceded the fewest, we've got the top-scorer, we've got second top-scorer, we've got the top assister, we've got the fewest yellow cards. This is fucking well deserved."
Also, beating their upcoming cup-final opponents 6-2 will have given them a bit of a psychological edge for that game, to put it mildly.
Stabæk-fans: Yes, they do exist, especially when Stabæk win the league
Fredrikstad
For a team expected to be in mid-table, who had to sell their star striker midway through the season and have had an ongoing feud with their captain and best midfielder, finishing runners up is one hell of an accomplishment.
Viking
Well look at that, they do have a bit of pride after all. While most of the attention was on departing skipper Nicolai Stockholm it was the younger players like Fillo, Nisja, Danielsen and Steenslid who carried Viking here and showed the home-crowd that they have every reason to be optimistic about next season.
Tommy Høiland
The 19 year old Viking-striker was once touted as one of the most exiting prospects in Norway, and after a few difficult seasons he is starting to look like his development is back on track. A natural finisher with a combative and somewhat nasty playing-style, he'll give keepers and defenders plenty of reason to worry (in every sense of the word) next season if he's given playing-time.
Høiland: One to watch out for, especially if you're a goalkeeper
Bodø/Glimt
A good win at home against Strømsgodset means the Northerners still have a chance of grabbing an unlikely medal and a place in Europe.
Bad Day
Aalesund
According to manager Kjetil Rekdal they would have lost against Hødd the way they played against Lyn. No one here at fjordball-towers had anything to add to that summary.
HamKam
Rubbish.
Rosenborg
Ok, so they were on the receiving end of a quite unexpected Lillestrøm-revival, but still, it was another example of a game they on paper really should have won but didn't. For every such result the argument that Rosenborg will never be consistent playing the way Hamrén wants them to play starts to carry ever more weight, and it will be very interesting to see how they do next season.
Vålerenga & Mad Martin Andresen
Amidst all the celebrations and rightful praise for the wonderfulness that is the 2008-edition of Stabæk, the Norwegian press seems to have forgotten to ask this one question: What the hell is going on with Vålerenga?
They have won two out of their last TWELVE games in the league, and for a club with their resources that is clearly not acceptable. Mad Martin earlier in the season said that the league wasn't important this year, that it was all about developing the team and working on the way they want to play, but really, can anyone see any sort of improvement or development in Vålerenga's football over the last six months? Anyone?
Getting dismantled 6-2 by their opponents in the upcoming cup-final won't do much for their confidence either.
Would any other person still be in a job as VIF-manager with results like that, after having spent the money they have this season? Not very likely.
4 opinions:
Stabaek = Landskrona BOIS
Are Landskrona BOIS that good??
Yes, it is worrying that Henning Berg looks like he may be able to turn a bunch of handballing wrestlers into a football team, but let's not forget that the LSK leadership hasn't yet had the chance to get involved with their stellar incompetence and flush the whole thing down the pan.
And yes, the BIG question has to be - how the hell does Martin Andresen still have a job??!!
The only thing connecting Stabæk to Landskrona that I'm aware of is that their manager used to manage them, and that Daniel Nannskog used to play there..
Hahah! Hopefully they will, they seem to have an uncanny ability to do just that. I dream of them doing something remarkably stupid, causing Henning Berg to bugger off and Ivar Hoff to take charge. Oh yes, the Hoff would sort them our and guide them to their spiritual home, the third division.
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