Berntsen Norway's New Head Coach I just got back to my office and had this news waiting for me in an e-mail from Brian Halliday of "Inside Soccer:" New coach appointed for Norway soccer team OSLO, Norway (AP) - Bjarne Berntsen has been appointed head coach of Norway's national women's soccer team, the world's No. 3 ranked squad, the national federation announced Tuesday. Berntsen, 48, spent 17 years with the elite series Viking soccer team, based in Stavanger on Norway's west coast, as a player and coach before stepping down as manager late last year. He also played 33 games for the national team, and served as an assistant coach for the men's team. Norwegian soccer association secretary general Karen Espelund said she was delighted to have recruited Berntsen, who takes over on Feb. 1. "With his experience from top soccer, as a coach and a leader, we have great confidence that he will take the A-team yet another step farther," she said. "He is taking over a good team." Norway's merits include winning the 1996 World Cup, and edging the United States to take Olympic gold at the 2000 Olympic Games. "I've always wanted to win something big, and see it as a challenge to win big with this team," said Berntsen. In October, outgoing head coach Aage Steen announced that he would step down at the end of this year after four years in the job. On FIFA's world rankings, the Norwegian women are No. 3 behind Germany in the top spot and the United States in No.2.
Berntsen is new women's soccer coach This is from Aftenposten, http://www.aftenposten.no/english/sports/article937546.ece : Norway's football association has hired Bjarne Berntsen to be the new coach for the women's national soccer squad. It's another blow for aspiring female coaches, who often seem overlooked. Eli Landsem is among those who are disappointed over the football association's choice. "I really felt like it was the next move for me," Landsem told VG Nett on Tuesday. Landsem boasts both academic coaching credentials and vast experience as a player. She currently is a professional coach in Denmark, for Fortuna Hjørring. She was among the few female candidates profiled in newspaper Aftenposten earlier this week, when she suggested the lack of female coaches probably has more to do with prejudice on the part of male sports bureaucrats than anything else. The football association (Norges Footballforbund, NFF) has been among the country's sports bureaucracies criticized for failing to nurture female talent. Berntsen, who took the job after two other higher-profile male coaches turned it down, said he aims to win new trophies for the women's team as soon as next summer. Berntsen left a job as director in soccer club Viking in November. He also has been an assistant coach for the national men's soccer squad.
SV: Berntsen Norway's New Head Coach Initially I couldn't find the link to this story because there was a typo in the headline, but here it is: New coach appointed for Norway's women's soccer team I also found a couple of mistakes in this article. The name of Norway's former coach is actually "Åge" Steen and not "Aage" Steen and the starting date for Berntsen was off by a month: "Norwegian soccer association secretary general Karen Espelund said she was delighted to have recruited Berntsen, who takes over on Feb. 1." Hege Riise had mentioned that the new coach had to take over on January 1 and an article posted at the "fotball.no" site states that Berntsen would in fact start his new job on January 1 and would be with the team for their training camp in La Manga, Spain which starts January 19.
SV: Berntsen is new women's soccer coach "Tusen takk" for posting this article SteinL. I was actually getting ready to post the link myself when I noticed that you had beat me to the punch. All along I thought that Landsem would have been the best choice because of her experience coaching women at the highest level both in Norway and in Denmark, but it seems like the attitude of the NFF was to get the best available coach whether or not the candidate had much experience coaching women. This approach actually worked quite well in the case of Even Pellerud who had no previous experience coaching women and went on to win the '95 World Cup and was arguably the most successful coach the Norwegian Women's National Team has ever had. :kjempekult:
Answers to Some of "secretcode's" Questions Becoming fluent in Norwegian is one of my goals, but I've still got quite a ways to go , so perhaps SteinL or someone else fluent in Norwegian can give us an English summary of Hege's comments in that article. It is my understanding that some of the top players in "Toppserien" like Bente Nordby and Unni Lehn do get a salary, but it isn't anything like what they received when they were playing in the WUSA. I also believe that the majority of "Toppserien" players receive no compensation so technically that would make the league semi-professional. I do have friends who play in "Toppserien" including one who I have regular e-mail contact with. I saw your post late last night and e-mailed her and will post her response when I receive it. I follow Norwegian Women's Football the best I can here in San Diego, but since SteinL is actually over there in Norway close to the action and is much more knowledgeable about this topic than I am and even speaks Norwegian, he would be a much better source of information for any "Toppserien" questions that you might have. Now that the former Boston Breakers duo of Dagny Mellgren and Ragnhild Gulbrandsen appear to be healthy again and scored goals for Norway in their Euro2005 playoff against Iceland, I think Norway could very well make it to the finals of Euro2005 in the U.K. next June. That was a huge 4-0 victory over Sweden in Uddevalla and don't forget too that Norway also defeated the defending World Champions in Hoffenheim, Germany three days before that. I'd be interested to know what SteinL thinks, but IMHO, Ingvild Stensland has been one of the most important additions to the National Team since WC '03. I believe that leaving Stensland off of that World Cup squad was one of the biggest mistakes that Åge Steen made as Norway's head coach. Currently Norway has a six match winning streak that includes those road victories over Germany and Sweden. I don't think it is just a coincidence that during those six matches Stensland has played all 540 minutes. Ragnhild Gulbrandsen has also started Norway's last four matches and scored four goals and Dagny Mellgren has started Norway's last three matches and scored three goals. :kjempekult:
One more correction Since I'm still stuck at home waiting for a plumber , here is one more correction to that first article: Of course Norway won the World Cup in '95 and a bronze medal in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics to go with gold in 2000 at Sydney. Does anyone know what Norway's record was during the four years that Åge Steen was the head coach? It would be interesting too to compare Steen's record to Pellerud's.
Re: Answers to Some of "secretcode's" Questions The average attendance on "Toppserien" matches were not more than 215 last season, even if this was a slight increase from previous years. So the clubs can't afford to play players very much. As far as I know, a few clubs - at least Kolbotn and Fløya - actually pays their best players, while others receive close to nothing. Kolbotn have - i think - been giving reasonable salaries to Solveig Gulbrandsen, Bente Nordby and Trine Rønning for a few years. While Fløya has obviously been paying their foreign players, Kristy Moore, Michelle Bolton, Satu Kunnas, Katrine Pedersen etc. On the other hand, Trondheims-Ørn does not pay players regular salaries at all, all they get is a certain compensation for expenses. This also applies to Unni Lehn and Ragnhild Gulbrandsen. This also goes for at least 99% of all other female players in Norway, I should think. So the Toppserien league must been considered amateur. Norway have had quite varied results during most of Åge Steen's reign, with impressive results from time to time, but failing in all major championships. The rumour is that Åge Steen was not very good at motivating the players. This changed a bit during 2004 when Trond Nordsteien was assistant coach, with impressive results such as 1-0 over Germany and 4-0 over Sweden. Now Nordsteien will also be replaced, since he has a full job as head coach for Trondheims-Ørn. The 7-2 playoff match against Iceland were completely dominated by 3 players: Solveig Gulbrandsen, Dagny Mellgren and Ragnhild Gulbrandsen. Which is very interesting, since all these 3 had just recovered from more or less long-time injuries. So it is obvious that Norway can be very good at it's best, and many people in Norway think that the Norwegian WNT will give Germany and Sweden a hard fight for the gold medals in the european championship.
SV: Answers to Some of "secretcode's" Questions "Tusen takk" for your reply SteinL. I was lucky enough to get invited to have dinner with Hege Riise and Unni Lehn the last time they were in San Diego together :kjempekult: and the only two players that I heard them specifically mention as receiving "reasonable salaries" were Solveig Gulbrandsen and Bente Nordby. Unni said something about not having to work while she was playing for Ørn, but I think she must have been referring to this "compensation for expenses" as opposed to receiving an actual salary. In any event, with so many of the league's players receiving no compensation at all, I would tend to agree with you that "Toppserien" is an amateur league. Too bad that the attendance figures aren't any better for the league, but it seems like there is very little money spent marketing the women's game in Norway. The typical Norwegians that I talk to usually only follow women's soccer during the World Cup or the Olympics and know little or nothing about the women's domestic league, which is really too bad.
Records Yes, I have been able to dig up some numbers. Even Jostein Pellerud (as he is listed in the official records) was coach from 1989 to 1996. This period have a total of 104 games, with 75 wins, 12 draws and 17 losses. If I count each win as 100%, each draw as 50% and each loss as 0%, this gives a total "success rate" of 78% during the whole period. Per-Mathias Høgmo was coach from 1997 to 2000. Games: 64 - wins: 44 - draws: 11 - losses: 9. Total success rate 77%, just a fraction below Pellerud. Åge Steen was coach from 2001 to 2004. Games: 59 - wins: 35 - draws: 11 - losses: 13. Success rate: 68%, i.e. significantly below the two other successful coaches. This fit very well with the fact that Pellerud won the EC in 1993 and the WC in 1995, Høgmo won the 2000 olympics, while Steen failed to win any championship. If I look at each individual year, the worst records during the whole period were in 2002 (58%) and 2003 (60%). It can also be noted that each coach has his best year last: Pellerud 82% in 1996, Høgmo 82% in 2000, Steen 81% in 2004.
SV: Records "Tusen takk" SteinL for not only comparing Even Jostein Pellerud's record to Åge Steen's, but also including Per-Mathias Høgmo's record as well. I would have expected that Pellerud's record would be better than Høgmo's, but am a little surprised that they were as close they were. It was nice too for Åge Steen that even though he didn't win any championships during his four years as Norway's head coach, he at least finished his career with a six match winning streak and had his best year in 2004. Hopefully this momentum will continue on in 2005 under the leadership of Bjarne Berntsen. Godt Nyttår alle sammen og HEIA NORGE!!
I'm not too optimistic about the choice of Bjarne Berntsen. He doesn't have a very impressive resume as a coach in men's soccer and hasn't been connected to women's soccer at all as far as I know. His appointment came right out of the blue. Eli Landsem has every right to be extremely disappointed. She should have been the obvious choice for the Football Federation this time, but it seems they've done everything they can to avoid her. One by one they have asked less or more qualified men to take over. Ola By Rise was one, then Gaute Larsen after he was fired at Stabæk, then to Fredrikstad coach Knut Torbjørn Eggen, then back to Høgmo again and then to TV-commentator(!) Karl-Petter Løken and finally they landed on Berntsen who happened to be jobless. Sweden, Germany, USA all have had female coaches for years. I don't know why our Federation has got such "dinosauristic" leaders.
Comments From Lise Klaveness Nice to see a post from you again in this forum Bauser and as usual I agree with everything you have written. :kult: I wrote to several of the Norwegian women players to find out what they thought about this selection of Berntsen and the exclusion of Landsem and did get the following diplomatic reply from Lise Klaveness: Lise also commented about Asker's signing of Bente Nordby and my New Year's wish for Marianne Pettersen to come out of retirement and play one more season.
Berntsen Selects His First Squad After being on the job for only a few days now, Bjarne Berntsen has already selected the squad that he will be taking to La Manga, Spain from January 19 - 25 for a training camp. "Tusen takk" to SteinL for posting the link to this article on his Norwegian Women's Soccer website ( Norsk kvinnefotball): Her er Berntsens første tropp Goalkeepers: Ingrid Hjelmseth, Trondheims-Ørn Bente Nordby, Asker Silje Vesterbekkmo, Røa Defenders: Marit F. Christensen, Røa Gunhild Følstad, Trondheims-Ørn Maritha Kaufmann, Team Strømmen Ann Iren Mørkved, Trondheims-Ørn Siri Nordby, Røa Ane Stangeland, Klepp Ingvild Stensland, Kolbotn Runa Vikestad, Fløya Midfielders: Kristine Edner, Røa Ragnhild Gulbrandsen, Trondheims-Ørn Solveig Gulbrandsen, Kolbotn Tonje Hansen, Kolbotn Guro Knutsen, Kattem Marie Knutsen, Kattem Unni Lehn, Trondheims-Ørn Forwards: Dagny Mellgren, Klepp Heidi Pedersen, Trondheims-Ørn Trine Rønning, Kolbotn Siv Skard, Arna-Bjørnar Lindy Melissa Wiik, Asker Lisa-Marie Woods, Asker There are a few surprises with this squad especially considering the fact that Berntsen has been on the job for such a short time. I'm not familiar with Guro or Marie Knutsen who play for the recently promoted club Kattem (are they sisters??) and I don't recall having seen Maritha Kaufmann's name on any previous National Team squad rosters. One name that is notably missing from this squad is Asker midfielder Lise Klaveness who was with Norway's 2003 World Cup squad, but fell out of favor with Åge Steen last year. As usual, Trondheims-Ørn is well represented with six of their players having been named to this 24 player squad. League champions Røa and Kolbotn, which finished a disappointing fifth both had four players from their clubs selected, while third place finisher Fløya only had defender Runa Vikestad selected. I haven't kept up with all of the off-season player transactions so perhaps SteinL could let me know if any other players from this squad besides Bente Nordby have changed clubs.
Re: Berntsen Selects His First Squad And what happened to Linda Orman? NORDBY: did Klaveness express anything about not being on the team?
Re: Berntsen Selects His First Squad Linda retired from fotball after the 2003 World Cup. I'm on a short lunch break right now and just read a very nice e-mail that Lise Klaveness sent to me today. Here are a few of the comments Lise made about not being selected for the National Team that I don't think she would mind me posting: "Of course I`m disappointed that I am still being kept away from the nationalteam, but after last year I have gotten used to the whole process, so I don't shed any tears about it any more....... I know that my last season qualified me to join the team by far, but the same story about me never being picked out kept repeating itself. Now I just try to focus about the game, and find back the joy of playing soccer without the nationalteam..."
Re: Berntsen Selects His First Squad There are two off-season transactions. Bente Nordby goes from Kolbotn to Asker, and Siv Skard goes from Arna-Bjørnar to Trondheims-Ørn (see this link). This last transfer is supposed to be only for a year until she moves back to Bergen. The "paperwork" for these transactions are still not processed, so the players are still listed for their old clubs. It was more or less "expected" that Trine Rønning would return to Trondheims-Ørn after two years in Kolbotn, but she stays in Kolbotn and has signed a new two-year contract. Yes, Marie and Guro Knutsen are sisters. Marie Knutsen played in Trondheims-Ørn a couple of years ago, but has now returned to Kattem, her original club, which was promoted last year. Stine Frantzen (young talent from Medkila, now moving to Fløya) and Marianne Paulsen (defender, moving to Trondheims-Ørn) are still injured, but both these might be included in the National Team before the EC in June.
Re: Berntsen Selects His First Squad I don't really know much about Siv Skard and was wondering what would be the best website for me to check out to find out more about her Toppserien career. I know that Siv came off the bench late in several matches for the National Team towards the end of last year, but I don't recall her playing for Norway prior to 2004. That is good for Kolbotn and the overall balance of the league that Trine is not returning north to Trondheim, but if Rønning had returned to Ørn that certainly would have improved their chances of advancing to the UEFA Club Championship Final. Any idea how much Rønning is being paid to stay in Kolbotn? I guess the team had a little more kroner available to spend after losing Bente Nordby. In an e-mail I received today, Lise Klaveness let me know that she "used to play with Marie on a youth-team, and she is most definitely a talent." Wasn't Stine Frantzen one of the main reasons why Medkila pulled off that huge upset last year in the Norwegian Cup Final and defeated Kolbotn? I'll have to check with one of my Fløya contacts and find out when Stine will be healthy enough to start playing again. Marianne Paulsen tearing her ACL right before the start of the 2003 World Cup was a huge setback for Norway especially since they already lacked depth at right back. As I recall Åge Steen was even experimenting with the idea of playing Unni Lehn at right back. I still wonder why he didn't add an experienced defender to Norway's squad such as Bente Kvitland after Marianne's injury?
Re: Berntsen Selects His First Squad Yes, I guess many people are still wondering about that. Me too.
Some of the Norwegian NT Players Who Retired Last Year I just came across a link to an article from last March that mentions that along with Anita Rapp, Monica Knudsen, Ingrid Camilla Fosse Sæthre, Linda Ørmen, Brit Sandaune and Marianne Pettersen also retired from the Norwegian National Team after the 2003 World Cup. Anita Rapp Retires From Norwegian National Team
Norwegian Defenders in the 2003 WC I was wondering too about the omission of Gøril Kringen off of the 2003 WC squad. I thought that her toughness in the center of the Norwegian defense was sorely missed in those 2003 WC matches against Brazil and the U.S. After the 2002 Toppserien season during which the Kolbotn trio of goalkeeper Bente Nordby and defenders Anne Tønnessen and Ingvild Stensland only allowed 9 goals all season, I thought that these three would end up being the difference for Norway in the 2003 WC after Bente Nordby decided to come out of retirement for the World Cup. Unfortunately as it turned out Stensland was left off of the 2003 squad and as I recall Tønnessen didn't play a single minute during the World Cup. Bente did have a great match in the opener against France and came up huge against the U.S. in the quarterfinals, but she couldn't do it all by herself even though she did manage to come very close. HEIA NORDBY!!