Cup final in Oslo, October 20, 1991 =================================== Strømsgodset - Rosenborg 3-2 (2-1) Ullevaal stadion Att: 27 240 0-1 Karl-Petter Løken (3) 1-1 Odd Johnsen (14) 2-1 Johnsen (28) 3-1 Trond Nordeide (70) 3-2 Gøran Sørloth (71) Referee: Roy Helge Olsen, Frigg Oslo. Line-ups -------- Strømsgodset (4-5-1): Frode Olsen - Vegard Hansen, Frode Johannessen, Arne Erlandsen, Jan Wendelborg - Glenn Knutsen, Trond Nordeide (Juro Kuvicek from 75.), Geir Andersen, Halvor Storskogen, Odd Johnsen (Arne Gustavsen from 90.) - Kenneth Nysæther; Robert Pedersen. Rosenborg (4-3-3): Ola By Rise – Øivind Husby, Bjørn Otto Bragstad, Rune Tangen, Trond Henriksen – Kåre Ingebrigtsen, Stig Are Enlid (Hugo Hansen from 78.), Bent Skammelsrud – Karl-Petter Løken, Gøran Sørloth, Roar Strand. Match report ------------ Now let's go over this weeks major sporting event in Norway, the Cup-final !! As usual it was played at the national stadium , Ullevaal, in Oslo and again as usual in front of a capacity crowd of 27.400. In fact NFF believed it could have sold a total of 90.000 !!! tickets according to a spokesman. The only other country in the world with this kind of interest for the Cup must be England and the FA-Cup final at Wembley . Let's turn our attention to the game. First the two teams line-up: Rosenborg (4-3-3): Bye-Rise Husby Bragstad Tangen Henriksen Ingebrigtsen Enlid Skammelsrud Løken Sørloth Strand Strømsgodset (4-5-1): Olsen Hansen Johannessen Erlandsen Wendelborg Knutsen Nordeide Andersen Storskogen Johnsen Nysæther It was expected that Rosenborg would win quite easily and after only three minutes it looked as if the experts would be right this time because that was so long it took Rosenborg(RBK) to take the lead. The goal was beautiful in it's simplicity: Strand received a ball on the left accelerated past his defender and delevered a perfect cross only for Løken to tap in giving Olsen in the SIF-goal no chance. Oh no everybody thought , that's it , RBK has won !!! Maybe Rosenborg themselves thought so too because the defense and especially goalkeeper Bye-Rise releaxed and Johnsen said 'Thank You' and equalized with a curling shot from the left corner of the penalty box which didn't look to difficult for the keeper to handle. After this shock RBK never recovered and gradually SIF took over the midfield where Andersen destroyed almost every attempt to create any chances for Rosenborg. He was my 'Man of the Match'. In the 28th minute SIF received a corner. From that kick Johnsen (again..) met the ball perfectly with his head and headed it beautifully in the net . 2-1 to SIF. This lead held until the excellent referee R.H.Olsen blew in his whistle for half-time. In the second half we all expected Rosenborg to come storming back in order to equalize. But again it wasn't to be. They tried and tried but constantly lost the ball bacause of bad passes or good SIF-tackles. The quality (which hadn't been especially good in the first half either..) sunk and the game was now rather dull before we suddenly had twoe goals in the space of one minute. First SIF took the lead 3-1 with a lovely chip from 20 m. over the goalkeeper who was standing too far from the goalline. The goalscorer was Nordeide and this touch was to be his last in the game because a few minutes later he was carried off with an injury. By that time the score had changed again. As we all know a team is never as wounderable as after it has scored a goal. This goes for SIF too of course so in the next RBK-attack Rosenborg managed to pull one back to 2-3. Again the goal was a beauty. A quick freekick from Skammelsrud into the penalty area was met by Sørloth who chested the ball down, turned 180 deg. and scored with a flat shot from 5 metres. Now at last Rosenborg understood the danger of losing the Cup, they pushed everybody forward and the last quarter was just like one big RBK-attack. But again a mixture of bad passes ,good saves from Olsen and poor finishing let them down. The nearest they got was hitting the crossbar from ten metres following a corner. So in the end SIF ran out as deserved winners in their fourth Cup-final and grabbed their fourth title as well !!. In my opinion the final was entertaining with excellent goals although the play was rather poor at times.