A short history of a club or country through a lineage..the greatest coach, player, moment in time, game, the future

 

- Norway -

 

...the greatest coach
Even Pellerud.. Led Norway 1989 to 1996 and to the World Cup final (91) losing to a single goal. Then he brought the same title (1995) in Sweden. Moving onto the semi final of the (1996) Olympics losing 2-1 to USA after extra time.
Apart from the titles he will be remembered for bringing in a number of players who have now become legends of Norwegian football such as Nordby, Pettersen, Riise and Gro Espeseth.

 

...greatest player
Hege Riise. When you see a team that changed female football in a country and you see one player who stood out then you realise the impact she had. A golden midfielder who brought the team together against some the best players of the best players of her time.

Won the World Cup, led her team to Olympic third place a year later and then the same title 4 years later.
4 months later she led Asker to the Cup before being drafted to the newly formed WUSA league in America. She did not dissapoint with the Carolina courage either leading them to the 2002 championship and become the club's MVP for 2 years.

 

..moment in time
1990 - 2000 The team were good and the players were great. You don't really realise what you had till it's gone and Norwegian football had one of the best teams and moments in history.

Defenders who could defend and give the ball to strong midfielders. In Riise, Unni Lehn and Anita Rapp they had one of the best midfields of all time. Then you had Marianne Pettersen and Dagny Mellgren as forwards and they were real footballgirls. How good were they well the 2000 squad was breathtaking. It stands as the best ever squad Norwegian football had reading as a who's who of their history.

Haugness, Nordby, Espeseth, Riise, Guldbrandsen, Rapp, Lehn, Pettersen, Mellgren and Knudsen.

 

...greatest game
You would think that a world cup final counts as a country's biggest game but Norway had one better. September 24th 2000 (Olympic semi-final) and Norway take to the field against probably the greatest team ever...Germany! All eleven of this German team were or became legends, even the coach and Norway were in a battle which ended 1-0 Tina Wunderlich scoring an own goal in the 80th minute.

This led to a final with the USA and another team full of greats including if anyone thought Per-Mathias Hagmo had inherited a great team from Even Pellerud then this was the moment to say I'm the coach.

4 days after the Germany win came the final in front of 22,848 but the USA were a team with names but not strength on bench. Chastain, Hamm, Foudy Lilly Millbrett and Fawcett but they were ageing and started with Siri Mullinix in goal dropping Briana Scurry.
Millbrett started things off with a goal in 5 minutes and Norway knew they were in a final. They battled the Americans and Espeseth scored a backbreaker in the 44th minute.

1-1 halftime

Norway ycame out with passion and soon came close as did USA. Small dynamo Shannon Macmillan came off for Cindy Parlow (69 mins) and the went form side to side with battles in the middle.
Ragnhild Gulbrandsen scored in the 78th minute and Norway went on the back foot for a while but they survived. They looked like they wanted it more and the core of their team were world cup winners from 5 years before. Then the drama intensified moving into the last 2 minutes USA attacked and you had teh feeling that they would score..but they didn't and Norway held the lead ..until 2minutes into extra time when Millbrett levelled the score.

The game went into extra time and both teams looked llike they wanted to win and the game took on the feel of a boxing match. They physically borught each other to the edge and Norway scored in the 102' minute through Dagny Mellgren leading to some of the best celebrations the tournament had seen.

Against all the odds Norway came out on top and that generaationn single handedly changed the game in the country. Norway became the country with the highest number of footballgirl registered to play and put their name down in history.

 

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