WC qualifier in Oslo, June 2, 1993 ================================== Norway - England 2-0 (1-0) Ullevaal Att: 22 256 1-0 Leonhardsen (42) 2-0 Bohinen (48) Referee: S Puhl, Hungary. Yellow card: Halle (61), Norway. Line-ups -------- Norway (4-5-1): E Thorstvedt - G Halle, T Pedersen, R Bratseth (R Nilsen from 82.), S I Bjørnebye - Ø Leonhardsen, E Mykland, K Rekdal, L Bohinen, J Flo - J Å Fjørtoft (G Sørloth from 57.). England (3-5-2): C Woods - G Pallister, A Adams, D Walker (N Clough from 63.) - L Dixon, D Platt, C Palmer, P Gascoigne, L Sharpe - L Ferdinand, E Sheringham (I Wright from 46.). Match report ------------ I got to the match very early, over one hour before kick-off. After the usual useless entertainment by a local artist (Jahn Teigen for those interested) it was time for the warm-up and a close look at an English national side for the first time. Graham Taylor had waited until the last minutes to announce his side so I was very interested in the lineup when the players arrived. There was no sign of neither Barnes nor Batty, players I assumed would be playing. Instead Taylor in his wisdom (?) had selected a back four (or was it three, I never really found out) consisting of Dixon, Walker, Adams and Pallister as right back(!!!). The latter was a tactical move by the England-manager in order to stop Josten Flo`s superiority in the air. And actually he succeded in doing just that. (Guess the only thing that proved successfull in the English side last night :-) ) The rest of the England-side was Woods in goal, then as expected Palmer, Platt,Gascoigne in midfield along with another surprise for me, Lee Sharpe of Man.U a player who IMHO has pace when running straight forward, but that`s all too. In the attack Taylor had selected Sheringham and Ferdinand. Norway's lineup should have been well known by now but just for the record it was: Thorstvedt- Bjoernebye,T.Pedersen,Bratseth, Halle- Leonhardsen,Bohinen,Rekdal,Mykland,Flo - Fjoertoft. The game got underway and immideately I discovered that Flo played on the left hand side and not the right hand side as expected. This forced England to move Pallister to the right back and reorganise their defence. Norway started most brightly forcing four-five corners inside the first quarter. Though none especially successfull. Flo (of all people!!) shot a good freekick from 25 metres and forced a good save by Woods. Fjoertoft went close with a header too after good work by Bohinen on the left. England on their hand seemed to lack both speed and passion, and rarerly got a string of two or more passes together. Gascoigne was very early frustrated by his side`s performance and started yelling at his teammates and especially Dixon for always playing the long-ball game, and rightly so I must say. However when he DID get the ball he was immideately surrounded by 2-3 Norwegians which proved to be far too much for him and thus he lost the ball on several occasions. After half-an-hour Flo and Leonhardsen switched places and a few minutes later Fjoertoft was brought down in the penalty area by Palmer. From where I was sitting (well rather standing after that incident) it looked like a clear penalty since Palmer didn't hit the ball at all. However having seen the incident on TV from the reversed angle I must admit the referee was right. Fjoertoft did make a dive and should maybe have been booked. Three minutes before the break and Fjoertoft went down again, this time at the edge of the penalty area on the right hand side. He was awarded a rather fortunated freekick in my (and Des Walker`s :-) ) opinion who started to argue with the referee. Meanwhile the freekick was taken quickly by Halle to Fjoertoft who went past Walker (who suddenly got other things on his mind than discussing with the ref.:-) ) and passed the ball the Leonhardsen who hardly made any contact with the ball, but in it went floating over a lying Woods. The timing of the goal was perfect and the lead deserved, because even though the opportunities had been few and far between on both sides, Norway had created the only chances in the half. In fact I didn`t notice ONE single shot on target for England in the first 45 minutes. The Norwegian defence had been excellent !! England made one substitution at half time. Sheringham who hardly had touched the ball went out and Ian Wright came in. Much to the delight of a few Norwegian Arsenal-supporters (!!!!) behind me who had been screaming HIS name during the first half and at the same time waving their Norwegian flags .... In the second half I expected an English rally from the first minute, but it wasn`t to be. Only three minutes into the half Norway caught England on a counter-attack with Mykland playing a perfect throughball to Leonhardsen who was completely alone on the left. He advanced towards the penalty area and gave the ball to Bohinen who came on the overlap. The LSK-player ran into the area, saw Woods down on his knees and shot over him in the nearest corner which seemed to surprise everyone on the field. We all went bananas in the crowd, everybody jumping up and down hugging eachother in the most unlike Norwegian manner. The goal was truly magnificent but even better was the build-up. IMHO the best goal (and play) I have witnessed by a Norwegian side ever at Ullevaal. For the rest of the game England was actually outplayed. Soerloth came in for Fjoertoft and he had two shots saved by Woods, Bohinen went close too on another occasion. The midfield with Mykland,Rekdal and Bohinen was overrunning their English counterparts, the back four played solid as a rock and even Flo managed a few passes with his feet :-) Thorstvedt in goal had nothing to do except for a few backpasses and a Ferdinand shot on which he made a brilliant one-handed save. I`ve NEVER been more confident that Norway would hold their lead than I was yesterday. Even against Turkey in late April I was afraid of more Turkish goals in the last quarter , but yesterday was totally different. The whole team was playing with a perfect spirit and very consistent through the 90 minutes. Every player deserves an applaud for the way he played and the manager `Drillo` Olsen is a tactical genius for picking just the right players at the right time. The defence was very solid and Pedersen impressed me as never before. He was IMHO even better than Bratseth who obviously suffered from his knee-injury. Halle and Bjoernebye had excellent matches as well, just too pity that Halle received his second booking and thus misses the game in Holland next Wednesday. The midfield was brilliant with Mykland and Bohinen with their outstanding technique, Rekdal with his vision and Leonhardsen with his never-ending running. In the attack Fjoertoft was kept well down by Adams, one of the few English players who did a good job, and Soerloth played very well too. So what about England then ? A huge disappointment to me. I`ve always been a great admirer of the English game, with all it's pace and never-giving-up attitude which often compensates it`s lacking technical abilities. Yesterday all this was gone as well, and unfortuneately then there is very little left. Many of the players looked tired after a long hard season and a tough match in Chorzow on Saturday. IMHO the defence did quite well defensively but did nothing offensively, just punting the ball forward on every occasion hoping for a miracle which of course never occured. Especially Dixon was guilty of that kind of meaningless play. The midfield was very weak and was the main reason for the Norwegian superiority especially in the second half. Gascoigne was nowhere and Sharpe should never have been there in the first place. Palmer with his long legs worked hard as usual but that`s all. I saw nothing of Platt's penetrating runs from midfield either. In attack Ferdinand did a reasonable job in the air against Bratseth and his speed caused a few problems at times but generally speaking both him, Sheringham and later Wright desperately lacked support from midfield. But then again the midfield was constantly overplayed by long balls from their own defence in true Wimbledon-style so who can blame them. England never managed to play the ball on the ground so what`s the point in using e.g Gascoigne,Platt and Sharpe then ? Players who all are better with the ball by their feet than in a long-ball game. Only Graham Taylor knows the answer to that question ......or does he ? After this match the standing in group 2 is now: Norway 6 5 1 0 20- 3 11 England 7 3 3 1 16- 6 9 --------------------------------- Holland 6 3 2 1 17- 8 8 Polen 5 3 2 0 8- 3 8 Turkey 8 1 1 6 7-17 3 San Marino 8 0 1 7 1-32 1 Next match is Holland-Norway next Wednesday (9/6). One point here and I really believe that Norway can make it to the WC`94. They can even afford a loss.