ULLEVAAL (VG) Olympic winner and football pundit Solveig Gulbrandsen was candid about his opinion on Norway’s chances at the World Cup.
SPEAK CLEARLY: Solveig Gulbrandsen admits that the Norway women’s national football team has a long way to go before they return to living up to the expectations set when she became a national team player.
Norway’s goal for WC in New Zealand is to be the winner of the pool and advance to the play-offs. It came out then national team manager Hege Riise presented the squad at the Ullevaal stadium on Monday.
– There is power in wanting to win the pool. And then we started from the bottom, instead of moving it up and it was a tense moment, Riise told VG and in reference to the European Championships when Norway went for a medal, but crashed out of the group stage.
Norway is in a group with New Zealand, Switzerland and the Philippines. The opener will be played on July 20 against the host country at Eden Park in Auckland.
BLID: National team manager Hege Riise presenting the WC squad at the Ullevaal stadium.
Football expert Solveig Gulbrandsen understands why the national team has not set clear placement targets, and believes they are based on experience.
– It’s fair to say that they had to move on from the group, but that’s what they were fighting for before, Gulbrandsen told VG.
He himself played in the national team which both won gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and EC silver in 2005 and 2013. Now he himself has lost faith in the national team who are medal favourites.
When asked what he hopes to get from this year’s championship squad, he replied this:
– My national team’s faith is a bit dead at the moment. My hope is that the Norwegian national team will fight and do what it takes to get a result. That’s the only thing I wished for. And you bled for the suit and did what it took, coming together as one, said Gulbrandsen.
As Riise was about to present the squad, something went wrong. See the miss here:
– What caused your national team trust to be killed?
– Over time, slowly but surely do it. I have been in the national team all my football life. I’m very passionate about Norway producing good results, and I’ve had a lot of good times and bad experiences. I’ve been involved in worse numbers losing, playing games, bad and not entertaining, but still winning Olympic gold medals, he said and continued:
– When time after time we have faith, see that there are opportunities, but then fail at small and simple steps that cause us to fail, then it becomes difficult. In the previous three championships for Norway I thought it was a terrible job, overall. With that plan, it would be impossible to deliver, he said.
TV 2 soccer pundits don’t completely squeeze it out. But even though Norway has international stars like Caroline Graham Hansen, Ada Hegerberg and Guro Reiten, he isn’t sure.
– If we have world stars, it turns out that they are not enough. You have to have a working team. “I have hope and faith again that Hege Riise and his team are skilled enough to get the group to come together, and make them sell that everyone stands as one,” said Gulbrandsen.
PROUD: VIF’s Karina Sævik was one of 23 players selected for this summer’s championship in New Zealand.
Forward Karina Sævik believes that Norway has set a realistic goal this time around.
– The opponent we have is a team we should be able to win. It’s more realistic than we had in the last championships, when we set a medal goal, but didn’t even qualify from the group. I think the team has faith that we will succeed, said Sævik.
He was backed up by goalkeeper Cecilie Fiskerstrand, who eventually returned to the championship squad after tearing ligaments.
– That’s a goal I think is realistic, game after game after that. In one game we can beat everyone, but we can also lose to everyone, said Fiskerstrand.
RETURN: Cecilie Fiskerstrand is one of three to make up the goalkeeping trio for Norway. Guro Pettersen and Aurora Mikaelsen have also been removed.
Football president Lise Klaveness believes a large part of that is tied to Norway’s history.
– From the side of the board, we’re concerned, after the EC, making a realistic assessment of the fact that we had a very big history before. It’s been years since the WC, EC and Olympics were won. We really want to not let the story be a burden on the shoulders of the players. It doesn’t have to be a burden. They have to be free and feel that they are challengers and not favourites, because so many years have passed, said Klaveness.
AT PEACE: President of football Lise Klaveness. Here’s the Champions League final for women in Eindhoven, which Caroline Graham Hansen and Ingrid Engen won with their team Barcelona.
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