Mjelde is out for the season, but it's not as bad as it could have been. I feared a full year. She just posted an update on social media and expects to be back in the summer.
That's great. I was like you and Sjögren, usually when you go for the MRI the odds aren't betting ones. Talk about lucky and unlucky. Hopefully she can recover fully and get up to match fitness in the summer.
Good news. Norway have arranged two away friendlies coming up soon: 8 April vs Belgium in Brussels. 13 April vs Germany in Wiesbaden. Squad to be announced over the next few days.
Martin Sjögren has selected his squad for the two friendlies vs Belgium (April 8, Brussels) and Germany (April 13, Wiesbaden): GOALKEEPERS Cecilie Fiskerstrand ....... 1996 ..... 31 / 0 ......... Brighton (ENG) Aurora Mikalsen ............. 1996 ..... 0 / 0 .......... Tottenham Hotspur (ENG) Guro Pettersen .............. 1991 ..... 0 / 0 .......... Piteå (SWE) DEFENDERS Maria Thorisdottir .......... 1993 ..... 46 / 2 ......... Manchester United (ENG) Ingrid Moe Wold ............. 1990 ..... 75 / 3 .......... Everton (ENG) Tuva Hansen .................. 1997 ..... 3 / 0 ........... Sandviken Kristine Minde ................ 1992 ..... 108 / 9 ....... Rosenborg Kristine Leine .................. 1996 ..... 10 / 0 ........ Reading (ENG) Cecilie Redisch ............... 1995 ..... 3 / 0 .......... West Ham United (ENG) Emilie Bragstad .............. 2001 ..... 0 / 0 .......... Rosenborg MIDFIELDERS Vilde Bøe Risa ............... 1995 ..... 33 / 2 ......... (No club) Ingrid Engen ................... 1998 ..... 31 / 5 ......... Wolfsburg (GER) Frida Maanum ................. 1999 ..... 34 / 3 ........ Linköping (SWE) WINGERS / FORWARDS Julie Blakstad ................. 2001 ..... 1 / 0 .......... Rosenborg Caroline G. Hansen ......... 1995 ..... 86 / 38 ..... Barcelona (ESP) Lisa-Marie Utland ............ 1992 ..... 55 / 19 ..... Rosenborg Elise Thorsnes ................ 1988 ..... 126 / 21 ..... Vålerenga Emilie Haavi .................... 1992 ..... 83 / 16 ..... LSK Kvinner Karina Sævik .................. 1996 ..... 18 / 2 ........ Wolfsburg (GER) Guro Reiten .................... 1994 ..... 52 / 10 ....... Chelsea (ENG) Amalie Eikeland .............. 1995 ..... 16 / 3 ........ Reading (ENG) Elisabeth Terland ............. 2001 ..... 0 / 0 ......... Sandviken Therese S. Åsland ........... 1995 ..... 6 / 1 ......... Kristianstad (SWE)
I don't know much about the international leagues but for Norway, I was curious how the clubs are ranked in? Is there a website of the standings or a site that discusses the various clubs and their ranking?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Toppserien This from last season. Don't know if they started new season yet.
Toppserien start postponed again, either two or four weeks. The reasoning given was the women's schedule is not as compressed as the men's and there is room so they are playing it safe. The NFF say they are taking medical advice into account on determining acceptable match load. It will be interesting to look at injury rate next Fall in comparison to previous seasons.
Kristine Minde and Elise Thorsnes have withdrawn from the NT squad facing Belgium and Germany. Reasons unknown. New players in are Emilie Woldvik (full-back, LSK) and Heidi Ellingsen (midfielder, Linköping). Sjögren really should have added another striker, but I suppose a number of Toppserien clubs are holding back players during pre-season. Woldvik has just played in the UWCL and has match fitness. Ellingsen has also played competitive football in Sweden, as the domestic cup is underway there. Toppserien is now due to start May 22 according to the latest estimate.
Was disappointed than neither Melissa Bjarnesoy nor Synne Jensen appeared on the roster - maybe one or both are being held back? Or not considered outright or out of favor with the coach?
I suspect Synne Jensen has been held back by Vålerenga, and that might have been the reason to why Thorsnes withdrew. They are from the same club and face quarantine if they leave Norway and come back. Not ideal when the pre-season games start soon, and Vålerenga have already had their fair share of this problem this winter in connection with the Brøndby mess. Norway are short on top strikers these days. I would have loved to see Runa Lillegård introduced this time. Don't know if Sjögren approached her club Lyn and was turned down or not.
There was a nice Aftenposten piece today on Emilie Bragstad who I've commented on a couple times this year. It's not often you see a player serve up about 25 straight passes, all crisp, all 100% flat on the carpet and dead accurate. Especially for someone still in their teens. She got her invite via Maren Mjelde's injury. Her first actual call was in the Fall but she had to dropout because of a knee injury. Bragstad goes on to say she hasn't played a match since 2020 and that they do not have to quarantine in hotels on return and can do it at home (where they can exercise, train on their own, etc). Had it been hotels she's not sure Rosenborg would have entertained the invitation.
Belgium - Norway live from Brussels on NRK2 at 18:00 CET today. (Perhaps geoblocked, but let's try our luck anyway). Back-up link after kick-off. I've got quite low expectations of this game. The NT squad is gathered for the first time in six months, when Norway had two lacklustre wins against Wales, and have only had a couple of days together now. But at least Hansen, Engen, Thorisdottir, Moe Wold, Reiten and Sævik are match fit. The big question is who will fill in for Maren Mjelde at centre-back. I hope Tuva Hansen gets the nod. She has been patient long enough now, and deserves a fair chance. If Emilie Bragstad has impressed in these few training sessions, I would like to see her as well. But a typical Sjögren move would be not to trust any new players and instead pull Engen down and make room for Bøe Risa and Maanum at central midfield. Which I hope he doesn't.
Thank you very much for the links, that's great. Fingers crossed. If not something may appear here at kickoff time, but fringe games are hit and miss: https://red.soccerstreams.net/event/belgium-w-norway-w-live-stream/626378 I was hoping Bragstad would get some late minutes today and I would have cringed if he started her on her first cap. Looks like Tuva Hansen it is:
Someone needs to give the Norwegian papers a kick in the ass again. I just scrolled the entire long football main pages of Aftenposten, VG, DB, etc with hundreds of links and all the stories are on men's football. In 2021 in Norway do you really have to tell the press there's a national team game? To me this is as bad or worse than not inviting them to a broadcasting contract negotiation. For all the talk and window dressing of females in management positions, the proof is in the pudding. How did a country that was culturally so far ahead of 99% of the world in women's football and culture fall so far?
I digress, there was another story on Emilie Bragstad and her father who had 15 caps for country (and played in Norway's victory over Spain in 2000). It was just hard to notice it was women's content because the photo was of her father: The story is here: https://www.aftenposten.no/sport/fo...-tidligere-rosenborg-helt-men-jeg-er-min-egen I really love Ingrid Syrstad Engen's comments about her combination of interest and reticence in going abroad: "When you first go out, it is important that it is a positive experience. She is very young and can still develop in Rosenborg. It's not exactly urgent." Brilliant.
Wow, experimental! Cecilie Redisch Kvamme, Kristine Leine and Tuva Hansen in the same back-line. For a Sjögren line-up this is: Sævik lone striker, it seems. Eikeland and Haavi on the wings and Reiten in the number 10 position behind Sævik. Maanum and Engen central midfield. Thorisdottir, Bøe Risa and Caro Hansen benched from start.
Too soon to tell if NRK is geoblocked but if it is the game is being streamed on the first link on the link above, it's on a commercial now but I was just watching them warmup: https://red.soccerstreams.net/event/belgium-w-norway-w-live-stream/626378
Friendly, Brussels Belgium 0 - 2 Norway 0-1 Guro Reiten 42 0-2 Lisa Marie Utland 73 ------------------------------------ Karina Sævik --- Emilie Haavi -------------- Guro Reiten ---------------- Amalie Eikeland --------------------------- Frida Maanum --- Ingrid Engen Ingrid Moe Wold -- Kristine Leine -- Tuva Hansen -- Cecilie Redisch ------------------------------- Cecilie Fiskerstrand 46 min - Lisa Marie Utland for Emilie Haavi 46 min - Julie Blakstad for Cecilie Redisch 46 min - Vilde Bøe Risa for Kristine Leine 67 min - Elisabeth Terland for Amalie Eikeland 86 min - Emilie Woldvik for Ingrid Moe Wold 87 min - Heidi Ellingsen for Frida Maanum An away win against the team which symbolized Norway's horrendous Euro 2017 campaign. The Belgium loss was the lowest point then. Tonight, the first half was pretty much eventless up until Guro Reiten's exquisite free-kick goal three minutes before the interval. As expected, Norway didn't look good. The slow passing game failed to trouble the Belgians and the rhythm in the attacking game was lacking. The ball wasn't played to the right player at the right time. Players look a little lost at times on what to do. They instead play the ball backwards too often. Things improved gradually in the second half, and I think Norway peaked during the first 25 mins of the second half, when they could have scored a few more. Sævik hit the underside of the crossbar. Utland added a second goal from close range after a nice build-up. Teenager Elisabeth Terland with an assist on her debut. Biggest disappintment tonight was Fiskerstrand's terrible distribution with her feet particularly in the second half. Too many easy balls knocked out of the field or to an opponent. It resulted in too much extra chasing which of course drains energy and will be punished severly against better teams. It will be interesting to see the line-up against Germany next week. Sjögren will probably field his strongest team then. Caro Hansen, Thorisdottir etc. were rested tonight. The women followed up the men's NT human rights campaign regarding the Qatar World Cup.
I could only catch the first 10-15 minutes before I had to evac, the problem with early afternoon kickoffs in North America. I did catch the goals on my mobile though; Reiten's free kick was magical. I didn't realize she was left-footed. Mjelde has some competition for dead balls. Fiskerstrand did redeem herself with an absolutely brilliant charge off her line to narrow the angle and make a save when a Belgian attacker was released clean alone into the box. That goes in and the game goes a different direction. Two-nil is the same result Germany had against the Red Flames a month and a half ago. When both teams stock up on Tuesday it should be a much more entertaining and interesting afternoon. I just read in one of the other threads that Marozsán is out, so Mjelde's absence is perhaps countered. If you open the image in a new window by itself you can read the letters on their hands: H-U-M-A-N R-I-G-H-T-S. As we say on the field, well in.
NFF confirmed today that the new heavily debated league format with play-offs will be scrapped this year. There isn't enough time to follow through with it from May 22, which is the kick-off date for Toppserien 2021. We will be two months behind schedule then, and with further delays possible mid-season, there will be a gamble to overpack the fixture list. So it's a straight forward league format this year! Several clubs have been hinting on social media after contact with authorities that friendlies might start from Saturday.