Close -- it was the second. Anita Rapp opened the scoring with a header from just outside the 6-yard box off a free kick (with a slight push off the French defender, though I'm not sure if it was enough of an offense to call a foul). Mellgren's goal was impressive. A curling shot from a very sharp angle after the French keeper came out and forced her to the by-line.
well, just back from the matches.... france gave norway too much respect early, conceeding play......once norway got the goal, and france committed forward, they were able to open up Norway.... I know one french player who'll be having a tough time sleeping tonight... got there early and spoke with marinette for a couple minutes... about wusa......."things will work themselves out'.... so something positive might emerge.........who knows, but she was blowing kisses at the end..kisses goodbye or kisses of thanks?? by the way france went 4-5-1.......#20 for norway Klavvess??? was brilliant...best player out there for Norway
I think it was a very professional performance by Norway today. Nothing spectacular. Got the 3 points and killed the match. They let France do the work for much of the time and took advantage of being sharper in front of goal. It didn't look like Norway fired on all cylinders in this match. There is more energy to burn if needed.
Player of the Match: Dagny Mellgren (NOR) MZQ: Mugneret-Beghe (FRA): “We were sleepy, but we did not blush” France regret lack of focus but take encouragement Powell (TSG) : “Norway were first to overcome their nerves”
really cool little group of norwegian fans on the SW corner, with flags and some really funky costumes. props to them.
Party Vikings I saw some of the group during TeleFutura's coverage of today's match. A friend of mine called to tell me she was sitting near them and that it looked like they were having a really good time. Hopefully I'll be sitting with some of those "party vikings" at the HDC on October 12th.
Bente Nordby Bente Nordby came up with several huge saves today. I still have concerns about Norway's defense, but with Bente in goal, I really like Norway's chances of making it to Carson for the final weekend of the WC. Here's the link to a "toppserien.com' article about Bente's performance today. If you get a chance it would be great if you could do an English translation or summary of the article. "Tusen Takk!" - Bente er gull verdt
Lise was quite good. Not that you can miss her anyway. Strong player with pretty good ball skills for a Norwegian! She's no Riise but not bad. She was quite the holding midfielder if I remember correctly.
Re: Bente Nordby As a pure neutral, I was quite surprised by the way France created chance after chance for themselves and were able to keep possession deep. If not for Nordby (especially the save when Pichon burst through up the middle in the 2nd half) and some poor shooting the game might have gone very differently. The Telefutura broadcast was alright. They don't appear to be using signal compression, and the pbp guy didn't let his condescending sexism run too wild.
Norway's Record With Klaveness Starting "Danke" to one of my friends in Germany I received a video of the 4NT Norway - Germany match from January of this year. This was the first time I ever had a chance to see Klaveness start and play 90 minutes for Norway and I was really impressed with what I saw. Since then Klaveness has started 12 straight matches and Norway has only lost once with Klaveness as a starter. If memory serves me correctly, that one loss was 1-0 to the U.S. at the Algarve Cup on an early goal scored by Shannon MacMillan.
Bente Nordby On Cover of VG I was on the "Inside Soccer" radio show this afternoon and commented that the score of today's could have easily been 2-2 if Nordby hadn't been in goal today for Norway. Coach Steen must have been extremely thankful about Bente's decision to come out of retirement back in April. I just took a look at the website of Verdens Gang (VG) which is one of Norway's most widely read papers and Norway's victory over France is right now the top story on the front page. VG Nett There is also a very nice picture of Bente on the front page as well. Bente Nordby
VG Matchtracker I'm not sure if any of the other newspapers in Norway are doing this, but VG had regular updates of today's match posted at the website that is normally reserved only for updates of men's matches. There are also several nice pictures: Norge-Frankrike
Re: Bente Nordby Translated article: - BENTE IS WORTH GOLD Anita Rapp and Dagny Mellgren scored the goals, but Bente Nordby was equally much a matchwinner for Norway in the World Cup-opener versus France. Norway took a big step towards the quarterfinals with a 2-0 win on Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday. Anita Rapp headed in the important first goal shortly after the interval. Dagny Mellgren scored from a poor angle halfway through the second half. On the other side of the field was Bente Nordby having one of her better matches for Norway. - It was ok, but I'm not that satisfied myself. There are still things to improve. I was very excited and nervous before the match. I'm glad we managed to keep a clean sheet. The most important thing was the 3 points and a good start in the tournament, says Bente to Toppserien.com. Everyone saw flashes of greatness in her goalkeeping against France, but Bente Nordby never speaks of herself in big words. - I have always been self-critical. That's how I become better. Today I had a few poor efforts when kicking the ball upfield. The surface was a bit different than what I'm used to, says the keeper after one of her better World Cup matches ever. - The bronzematch against Braszil in 1999 was perhaps better, but it's hard to compare, she says. But if Bente wasn't totally satisfied with herself, there was a national team coach with a wide grin on his face when receiving questions about Norway's keeper. Against France, Nordby showed why Åge Steen wants her on the team even if she declined to play last year. - We have seen it before. When the World Cup comes around, no one is better than Bente. It's good to have her back there. She was a matchwinner for us against France and will be worth gold for us in this tournament, says the coach. Hege Riise made a comeback for the team in the final minutes when coming on for Unni Lehn and immediately showed her class with a dangerous pass that could have catered for a third goal. - That was some entrance by Hege Riise. We saw a little glimpse of her class just there in that short moment. She has barely practiced with the team after the injury, but she is on her way back. Her fitness improves every day and we hope to use her more in the next game, says Åge Steen.
I don't know. In the second half, France had some pretty good opportunities and while I would like to think it was because they outplayed Norway in the midfield(getting balls that is), I think Norway just didn't play so well or gave up too easily. France could have had a couple of goals easily.
article on Norway/France France 'Rapped' By Not Heeding Set-Piece Warning http://onthesidelines.org/wwc092003a.htm
klaveness as the best player out there for norway, really nice play maker who organized things well for norway...very comfortable with the ball at her feet... France went 4-5-1, and in the 1st half, played far too much long ball to Pichon, who was stranded without support...too many free kicks for Norway... eventually, France paid the price, as Rapp got the goal.. Hodda Lattaf was marking Rapp all match, and oddly the rather short french right back got matched with Rapp on the free kick... then France decided to commit forward... Stepnaie BMG had two really outstanding chances in the box, freeing herself with deft dribbling moves, only to miss net both times... Pichon had too much service with balls in the air, not what she does best...the one time a ball was played behind the defense...nordby made an outstanding save... Norway needs to be a little concerned with the chances france was able to create...after wathcing North Korea in the 2nd match...I'd say the North Koreans are a better side...their speed of play is incredible and passing outstanding..all this with a relative poor match from Ri Kum Suk... Nigeria was very fortunate not to get beat 6-0...North Korean keeper made a couple great touch saves on individual efforts from Nigeria...
It was like watching a Charge game out there. They would blast it too high forward to Pichon. She would only be able to get a head on it and it would go forward to the keeper. Can't do that. She's the fastest player out there. Have her as a deep-lying forward then. Get some others players up there. SMB had some great chances after some fine dribbling but her best wasn't out there. Play her on the wings! 4-4-2 will do better. I would start Lattaf upfront. Maybe have Tonazzi start too. Young goal scorer.
It appeared Lattaf's function was to contain Rapp out on the wing. Aside front the goal Rapp got, Lattaf did a good job. It's a mystery where Lattaf went on that free kick.... The defender who got stuck on Rapp was complaining about a push in the back. Keri Seitz had her usual inconsistent match. Why in the world did Seitz get the call over Sandra Hunt?? Seitz looked scared a few times like she didn't know what decision to make...and the end she gave Norway a couple yellows...one for delay and another for a two footed tackle. Diacre the central defender for France was outstanding as was Georges too Woock did some nice stuff in midfield, once France decided to stop defending and commit some numbers forward. Loisel seemed to think, let's play for 0-0 and if Norway gets a goal, then we decide to commit forward. The Norweigian fans were great, lots of vocal support... 2nd match, about a 1,000 Nigerian fans...but the Koreans about 2,000 were NON-stop and clearly the ebst of the day... The North Korean players went over to that group in unison afetr the match. tahnking them for the support.
BENTE IS WORTH GOLD "Tusen takk" for posting this translation. I spent most of the day up in Carson yesterday and didn't read this until just now. Bente was awesome during that third place match against Brazil in the '99 WC. 120 minutes without allowing a goal. Too bad it ended up being decided by PKs. Some of us were joking while we watched the Norway - France match that after Bente decided to retire last November, Åge Steen started calling her every week pleading with her to come out of retirement until Bente finally relented after five months of this just to get Steen to stop calling her.
I am going to feel a lot more comfortable if one of Norway's most experienced defenders Anne Tønnessen is in the starting lineup against Brazil. I still haven't heard the reason why she didn't start Saturday. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Norway ends up playing North Korea in the quarters. I'm sure Åge Steen was watching that second match closely since I doubt that any of the Norwegian staff has seen North Korea play since the last World Cup.
"Georges too" She made a few mistakes. Corinne got her to play better. Woock did do a good job but they needed more people forward earlier in the game. Norway didn't play their best and France should have taken the initiative in the first half. Sandra Hunt has been the 4th official on way too many games recently. Refs for the mid-week games: NOR - BRA 24.09.2003 9 WASHINGTON DC Group B Referee AGBOYI Xonam (TOG) Assistant Referee 1 KREBE Perpetue Desiree (CIV) Assistant Referee 2 BIAGUI Florence (SEN) Fourth Official OGSTON Tammy (AUS) FRA - KOR 24.09.2003 10 WASHINGTON DC Group B Referee ZHANG Dongqing (CHN) (did the US game) Assistant Referee 1 LIU Hsiu Mei (TPE) Assistant Referee 2 YOSHIZAWA Hisae (JPN) Fourth Official OGSTON Tammy (AUS) SWE - PRK 25.09.2003 13 PHILADELPHIA Group A Referee OGSTON Tammy (AUS) Assistant Referee 1 KEEN Airlie (AUS) Assistant Referee 2 LELEU Jacqueline (AUS) Fourth Official IONESCU Floarea Cristina (ROM) USA - NGA 25.09.2003 14 PHILADELPHIA Group A Referee ROMANO Florencia (ARG) Assistant Referee 1 LOIS Sabrina (ARG) Assistant Referee 2 CERCATO Alejandra (ARG) Fourth Official DENONCOURT Sonia (CAN) GHA - RUS 25.09.2003 15 CARSON/LOS ANGELES Group D Referee SEITZ Kari (USA) Assistant Referee 1 SUTTON Karalee (USA) Assistant Referee 2 WHEELER Sharon (USA) Fourth Official BENNETT Jennifer (USA)
FIFA Article About Goalkeepers I just saw this article posted at the FIFA site: A hand to the keepers