World Cup 2026

[Sheilbh]

The return of the national team and the celebration would suggest Norwegians in general are happy with the performance, and don't give two effs about VAR. 

Very cool. Doubt it'll be the last big tournament we'll see the row at either - I think a lot of those players are still pretty young/mid-20s?

[HVC]

History will only repeat itself when those 3 sons have sons of their own playing

Or Infantino will up it to 60 teams and half of Europe gets in. Except for Italy

[crazy canuck]

The return of the national team and the celebration would suggest Norwegians in general are happy with the performance, and don't give two effs about VAR. 

Yes, I really admire how the country is celebrating the accomplishment.

[HVC]

The Cabo Verde homecoming was cool too.

[Sheilbh]

History will only repeat itself when those 3 sons have sons of their own playing

Or Infantino will up it to 60 teams and half of Europe gets in. Except for Italy

I think Infantino has already proposed a 64 country World Cup. I wouldn't mind giving it a go for the centenary

As someone who didn't like an expanded World Cup, I have been won over.

[crazy canuck]

I had an interesting chat with a fellow at coffee this morning who is quite knowledgable about football, having played at In Europe.

His view is that both of the players and the refs have adapted to the technology in a way that they become reliant and the usual judgements that would've been made are left to the technology.

The ball hitting the wire is a perfect example.  His view is that prior to VAR players probably would've stopped when it was clear that the ball had hit and obstruction.

But now the referee is reliant on getting a call from the VA R booth that the chip went off, or that something should be reviewed and so the referee on the field is not as vigilant. And the players on both sides now understand that even if they see something that should have brought play to a stop, they played through it because in the back of their minds, they know that whatever happens will be called back by the VAR official.

All of that fails when the technology fails.  And so, with so much of what is happening in our modern lives, reliance on technology is modifying the way we think and act.

It's actually a pretty interesting case study on the impact of technology on human behavior.

[Josephus]

You're missing my point entirely shelf. I'm not suggesting that the players turned to the raft until the ref he got it wrong. I'm suggesting that when the players saw the ball hit the wire the players ought to have just stopped playing because it was clear to everybody that the ball was dead.

1. they may not have seen it.....it all goes so fast.
2. Rule number one in any sport (except, cricket, I hear): keep playing until the ref blows the whistle. What would happen if the English player stopped, only for a Norwegian, who didn't see the ball hit the camera (as did most people) picked the ball up and scored.

Sorry, CC, you're wrong about this. It's not just soccer...but any sport. In hockey, if a goalkeeper catches the puck behind the red line and with his glove brings it back into play, and the ref doesn't call it...the goalkeeper doesn't say "Hey ref...that should be a goal, you missed it." NEVER.

Also, even so, it's not cheating, where for example, you punch the ball in the net deliberately in the hope for the ref not to see it. The ball allegedly hitting the camera was not pre planned by the English team. No where in the dressing room did coach say "Ok...so hopefully the Norwegian goalkeeper will kick the ball, and if it hits the camera, pretend not to see it, and carry on."

It's not cheating, it's taking advantage of a bad call. Happens all the time, in every sport (except cricket apparently).

[crazy canuck]

You're missing my point entirely shelf. I'm not suggesting that the players turned to the raft until the ref he got it wrong. I'm suggesting that when the players saw the ball hit the wire the players ought to have just stopped playing because it was clear to everybody that the ball was dead.

1. they may not have seen it.....it all goes so fast.
2. Rule number one in any sport (except, cricket, I hear): keep playing until the ref blows the whistle. What would happen if the English player stopped, only for a Norwegian, who didn't see the ball hit the camera (as did most people) picked the ball up and scored.

Sorry, CC, you're wrong about this. It's not just soccer...but any sport. In hockey, if a goalkeeper catches the puck behind the red line and with his glove brings it back into play, and the ref doesn't call it...the goalkeeper doesn't say "Hey ref...that should be a goal, you missed it." NEVER.

Also, even so, it's not cheating, where for example, you punch the ball in the net deliberately in the hope for the ref not to see it. The ball allegedly hitting the camera was not pre planned by the English team. No where in the dressing room did coach say "Ok...so hopefully the Norwegian goalkeeper will kick the ball, and if it hits the camera, pretend not to see it, and carry on."

It's not cheating, it's taking advantage of a bad call. Happens all the time, in every sport (except cricket apparently).

I don't think it's possible that English player didn't see it. He was tracking it and he moved toward it as the trajectory of the ball changed.  This wasn't just something that landed by surprise in his lap.

The thing that struck me about all of this is that soccer seem to be one of the sports that had a higher degree of sportsmanship, and this episode was jarring to me for that reason.

The other sports you mentioned are sports where athletes are trained to play to the whistle. And it's not surprising that some of those sports come out of North America where that is the cultural norm.

If you see my post just before our exchange today, I think the person I had coffee with this morning had a very good explanation for why it's happening and so I withdraw my accusations.  I now think the better explanation is the impact that the technology is having on the way of the game is played.

[HVC]

Also never seen a seen a someone defending in basketball take a a charge and then get up and tell the ref it was just a light push and shouldn't be a foul, but then again I don't watch much basketball

*edit* closest analogy I could think of the the Haaland foul as both sports are a semi-contact sport.

[Norgy]

The return of the national team and the celebration would suggest Norwegians in general are happy with the performance, and don't give two effs about VAR. 

Very cool. Doubt it'll be the last big tournament we'll see the row at either - I think a lot of those players are still pretty young/mid-20s?

Haaland, Bobb, Nusa, Schjelderup and a few defenders have more possible tournaments, Ødegaard is 29, I think, and might look to the Euros as coming at the right time for a player of his type. Sørloth's 31, Ryerson 28 and I have no idea who could replace Nyland at 36 in goal now. Sweden's much better at training good goalies, and Denmark had one of the world's best goalkeepers ever. Norway still look back at Thorstvedt as possibly the best.

There is, apparently, a good crop of U19 players and U21 players. Sverre Nypan at Man City might become Ødegaard 2.0.

[Sheilbh]

Haaland, Bobb, Nusa, Schjelderup and a few defenders have more possible tournaments, Ødegaard is 29, I think, and might look to the Euros as coming at the right time for a player of his type. Sørloth's 31, Ryerson 28 and I have no idea who could replace Nyland at 36 in goal now. Sweden's much better at training good goalies, and Denmark had one of the world's best goalkeepers ever. Norway still look back at Thorstvedt as possibly the best.

There is, apparently, a good crop of U19 players and U21 players. Sverre Nypan at Man City might become Ødegaard 2.0.

I treat Haaland as slightly separate/his own thing But what's the reason for the recent good crops coming through? Presumably also part of Bodo Glimt's success?

It came up in a very justified almost rant by Duncan Ferguson about the state of Scottish football and he directly used the comparison with Norway as a country with a similar population, similar amount of money coming into the league (I think Scottish football actually gets a bit more money - if horrendously distributed). But I don't know if there's been much about how Norway got here? I think Ferguson's right (and I wouldn't disagree with him while he's ranting anyway) that Scotland needs full root and branch reform - and I suspect is just too much a vehicle for the Old Firm teams. But one of the things they were mentioning was exactly that after the current generation (many of whom will age out with this tournament) there's just not much coming through.

[Threviel]

I listened to a Lamine Yamal interview. His goal is to play an interesting fun game that the audience will like and not play the boring game everyone else does, with the endless passing-the-ball-around.

Now, that's a Spaniard I support.

[HVC]

It's the morrocan in him

[Norgy]

It came up in a very justified almost rant by Duncan Ferguson about the state of Scottish football and he directly used the comparison with Norway as a country with a similar population, similar amount of money coming into the league (I think Scottish football actually gets a bit more money - if horrendously distributed). But I don't know if there's been much about how Norway got here? I think Ferguson's right (and I wouldn't disagree with him while he's ranting anyway) that Scotland needs full root and branch reform - and I suspect is just too much a vehicle for the Old Firm teams. But one of the things they were mentioning was exactly that after the current generation (many of whom will age out with this tournament) there's just not much coming through.

I think Ferguson is looking at the wrong flow of money.
Norwegian families have two very important things in this respect: Free time and disposable income. This is where it begins.

I look at my friends with children, and they spend an inordinate amount of time coaching or otherwise supporting the youth teams. Youth coaches, probably into the 13-14 year old bracket get a small salary and these teams have practice more times a week than semi-professional teams did when I was 20-30 years old.

The infrastructure is built locally, partially funded by the state lottery. The state's oil company, Equinor, also sportswashes by supporting all youth sports in Norway.

The Norwegian league is poor financially. Bodø-Glimt now has a huge advantage. I would say there are around 5-6 clubs with youth systems and clout to compete at least on some level in Europe. Viking from Stavanger (good attendances, reasonably good local sponsorships), Brann from Bergen (fanatical fans, big club in terms of development, sponsorship deals), Rosenborg from Trondheim (used to be the Nordics' most successful club, fell on hard times, still develops 15-19 year olds like crazy, will probably come back and win silverware) and Vålerenga from Oslo (always good youth teams, never good senior teams). The big difference from 20 years ago is that the Norwegian players are poached at a young(er) age to academies or youth setups by big European clubs. Oscar Bobb was offered academy at Benfica and later at Man City. Players leave at 17-20 and play in clubs like Heerenveen and develop.

I would say that what Norway does very differently is that up until you are 14-15 years old, football is not about winning. It is about friendship and development. Youth coaching is built on the Coerver method from the Netherlands where you always have the ball at your feet. Deciding on a career happens around 17-18. Most players then become part-timers and study and work.

Sørloth was a very late bloomer who's had plenty of setbacks. Haaland is, as you say, a separate entity. Ødegaard left for Real Madrid at a time when most are trying to make sense of high school.
But a lot of the other players just followed the route described above. Some have genes, like Patrick Berg, who is 3rd generation international for Norway, but this explains little.

The Scottish leagues seem dire below the Premiership. Stenhousemuir vs Stanraer on a rainy Tuesday sounds cold.

One thing Norway's young footballers have in common with a lot of Europeans is that immigrant children have a path to greatness through sport. A path that is less obvious in other walks of life and employment in general. That is sad, but true.

That being said, I would like to say that I doubt that Norway will have as good a team in, say, 10 years as today. We do see that big money is spent elsewhere in Europe, and that the signings of younger and younger players make a dent in the model used in Norway. So, like with much else, the probably is the unpredictable parasitical capital.

[Threviel]

Swedish commentators are having a discussion on if the Spanish tactic will be to bore the French to a win.

The football world is finnacy waking up to the cancer that is Spain.