And then there’s me who is a norwegian HSV fan 🥲
Despite being on r/soccer, I read this headline and I’m all: “You’re the herpes of Europe…? Wait. Wut?”
Hamburg has been out of the top tier for so long now that it just didn’t register.
I remember in the 90s, Brazil got owned twice by Norway
Only Denmark not trash from the Scandinordics, dark times
we are trash bro
I would argue Bosnia are a closer parallel than Norway are. Yes, both have consistently come close to qualifying for international tournaments for over a decade now, but as a Former Yugoslav territory Bosnia has the prior success that Hamburg has but Norway simply does not
Yugoslavia doesn’t exist anymore, and its success was a joint effort of the states within it, so your parallel is a stretch at best. If we’re using defunct multinational states, Norway was a part of the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Sweden too. And Denmark won the Euros in 92.
Beating a topped Brazil 2-1 to get to RO16 in '98 was more difficult and impressive than anything Bosnia ever pulled off
Yugoslavia were 2 time WC Semi Finalists, and 2 time Euros Runner Up. That’s far better than anything Norway has done
and bosnia was just 1/6th of yugoslavia, so i dont know if they should really get full credit for all those achievements
It’s no different than Serbia or Croatia getting credit for it, both of which have happened
i mean personally i dont think any of them should really get those achievements, but technically doesnt all of yugoslavia’s footballing history legally belong to serbia?
somewhat unrelated, but did bosnians ever make up a majority of the yugoslav team, like how the ussr team was often majority ukranian? would def make sense to give them credit if they were like 50-60% of the squad, not so much if they were like 10-20%
Seems pretty obvious that none of the former Yugoslav states should be seen as ‘inheritors’ or successors to the old Yugoslavia national team. If you look through their old squds, it seems like a fairly even mix of nationalities in there.
I didn’t see you were thinking of Yugoslavia. Well, if you feel like you inherit those achievements, good for you I guess
Are HSV and Hertha big rivals? Rekdal used to play for Hertha, so that might be the reason he uses HSV as an example.
Hertha: why he say fuck me for
Relevant parts from the article:
Rekdal recalled that Norway controlled the game in Spain but still lost 3-0, gave away a lead in the last three minutes against Scotland in June and lost 2-1 - and also failed to hold on to a 1-0 lead in Georgia in March. “When it comes down to it, we are not there,” Rekdal says.
That is all the more saddening for the Norwegians, he says, because they have the best generation they have had in decades. “Our football as a whole has taken a leap. You can see that not only in Haaland and Ödegaard, but also in the fact that we now have players at Sevilla FC, SSC Napoli, Burnley FC, Brighton & Hove Albion, Borussia Dortmund or Ajax Amsterdam, and that we are achieving good success with the youth teams,” Rekdal explains. And yet Norway regularly fails. “We are the HSV of Europe,” Rekdal even says, because the Norwegians mess up the qualification for major tournaments as regularly as Hamburger SV messes up the return to the Bundesliga.
Norway has fallen “behind countries like Finland, North Macedonia and Albania” and, according to results, is “more on a par with San Marino, Liechtenstein or Andorra”, Rekdal complains. Maybe they should go the “German way”, says Rekdal, and organise a big tournament together with Sweden and Denmark. Because then Norway - like Germany for 2024 - would automatically qualify.
I was born in the 90’s, the shit I’ve seen from our NT is out of this world!
Anyone remember Espen Johnsen v Spain (2003) the first leg? He was a beast! Praised as the savior of Norwegian football! Raul just couldn’t beat him! I’ll never forget when Raul saw Espen rush out, and decided to lob, but Espen stopped his rush, making it look as if Raul handed him the ball.
Remember the second leg? Where Espen messed up his ankle, didn’t sub and we ended up losing 3-0. He wasn’t the only cause, but the fall from grace within a week was immense.
And then you have the whole diva-saga between Carew and Riise. Both skilled, but dumber than rocks.
It went downhill from there. Between 2000-2020 the NT has been fumbling every chance they’ve had. When we beat Portugal in 2010, but fumbled our way out of another competition.
At this point the sentiment towards our NT is “I don’t know how, but we’ll fuck it up somehow”.
I was born in the mid 90’s. I feel like i have experienced nothing but disappointments with our national team. We always end up relying on other teams results. We always end up struggling away against sub-par teams like Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria or whatever. We always draw/lose games where national teams that are on the same level as us win quite easily. We should be dominating teams like that but we just dont.
And then we play meaningless friendlies against shit where things look kinda good and media gets hyped etc before instant disappointment when we draw 1-1 against Georgia
This should be a job HIGH on the list of coaches willing to be a national team coach so I think we need a new coach, maybe a foreign one. I dont think there are any Norwegian coaches that can lead us to something good but we dont pay our head coaches enough for that. I dont think Solbakken and his childhood friend who was coaching a team in 2nd or 3rd division before the national team can take us there.
My dad always says that since we now have world class players playing for PL titles and CL titles etc and that they maybe hold back a few percent to stay fit for club games that matter more, maybe there is something to that.
We always end up struggling away against sub-par teams like Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria
Well, both Azerbaijian and Bulgaria played very cynically the times we drew against them. Azerbaijian parked three buses and Bulgaria had 11 players with orange cards when the whistle blew. (Two Nations Leagues ago)
I’m more angry with how the players are too respectful and timid against more open but better opponents. When they’re up there on that stage, they need to learn to close their eyes, and imagine the opponent is Sweden
Haha, those were just examples of types of teams we struggle against, but i get your point.
They do still have an outside shot of qualifying through the playoffs.
Essentially they need Israel to qualify (finishing top 2 in their group which is very feasible), then they would enter the League B playoffs with Bosnia, Finland and Iceland (if Ukraine qualify by beating Italy). All of which they could beat on their day*.*
If Ukraine don’t qualify however they would take the 4th League B playoff spot instead, but another League A playoff spot opens (because Italy qualify) which goes to League B. So they’d end up in the League A playoffs with what currently looks like it will be Wales/Croatia, Poland/Czech R and Estonia.
Norway need more than just Israel to do their parts:
- In either case: Serbia needs to keep its qualification spot over Montenegro
- Option 1: Israel gets a qualification spot over Romania
- Option 2: Israel - gets a qualification spot over Switzerland. And Ukraine gets a qualification spot over Italy or England.
Norway will not get playoffs if Isreal is qualified over Switzerland and both England and Italy qualify directly.
Thanks, yeah Serbia qualifying looks very likely as they just need to not lose to winless Bulgaria at home, or if Montenegro drop any points inc. away to Hungary.
And yeah the Swiss are normally fairly reliable but do still have to play Romania and Israel away, who also play each other, so anything is still possible in that group!
So they’d end up in the League A playoffs with what currently looks like it will be Wales/Croatia, Poland/Czech R and Estonia.
Which of the qualified League B teams that end up in League A playoffs is determined through a draw, among the League B teams that did not win their Nations League group. So it would be a draw between Norway, Iceland, and Ukraine, and the 2 other teams would go to League B playoffs.
This would mean you were very successful at one time. Norway has a distinct lack of international success, chance to change it in the next 5-10 years though. A few more good players to add to Haaland and Odegaard and you should do something
Maybe Sweden or Bulgaria for the HSV of Europe
Let us not forget our Olympic bronze medal ;)
I think he just means that we have big potential and always fail. Saw some stats that in the last 20 years we were the team closest to qualifying for a major tournament without actually going in. Four lost playoffs and several qualifiers where we missed out by three points or less.
Our best players are still young and relatively inexperienced. Our two best centre backs (Østigård at Napoli and Ajer at Brentford) are far away from the peak age of CBs. The only 30+ year old player who started against Spain is our goalkeeper, who ironically is the one who most looks like he’s 14
Ajer seems to have stalled a bit at Brentford. I’m a Celtic fan and thought he was a great player with just a few rough edges to polish off but since we sold him he hasn’t seemed to kick on yet.
Put it this way, he’d be an automatic first pick for the Scotland team that qualified fairly easily from the same group.
Sweden played a World Cup quarter final as recently as 2018, they are still successful even though they will have missed two tournaments in a row
Hungary would be a better example
chance to change it in the next 5-10 years though. A few more good players to add to Haaland and Odegaard and you should do something
People always say this before every single qualifier, if you believe them then Norway would have qualified already. It is very doubtful if Haaland will ever play an international tournament in his career
It is doubtful, but I’d still say Haaland will more likely play at least one at some point than not, provided he doesn’t retire early. He’s got like 3-4 more chances after this + 3-4 chances at a World Cup.
Norway is probably around the 24th team in Europe rn so with 24 teams in the Euros surely they get lucky at some point right?
Come on, we’re unbeaten vs Brazil in world cups, and world no 2 on FIFA rankings in early 90s 😎
Our success is just qualifying for basically any tournament again!
Why he say fuck for me?