Ground: Lerkendal (21,423 capacity)
Location: Trondheim, Norway Ticket price: 230 NOK (€20)
Lerkendal is a short walk away from the Nidaros Cathedral and roughly 20 minutes away from the town centre. I would suggest getting the bus to the Lerkendal (you can get one direct from the Centralstation) as it's very difficult to get a connection in Norway outside of the WiFi spots. To get a signal, I'd advise either going to the Centralstation, the cathedral, or hang outside one of the many hotels.
Rosenborg are one of those teams that's always fascinated me since I was young. Perhaps the most historic team in Norway, I always associated the 'Troll Kids' with their late 2000's/early 2010's team that qualified for Europe on a regular basis. Players such as Anthony Annan, Alex Tettey, Per Ciljan Skejlbred, Tore Reginiussen, Mikael Dorsin, Rade Prica, Steffen Iversen and the one-club man Roar Strand are just a few names that have proudly donned the white of the Trondheim outfit over the last few years. Unfortunately, they have fallen on troubled times as far as league performances have been concerned, having last won a trophy (the league and cup double) back in 2018. This is simply not good enough for a team of Rosenborg's stature but despite this, I have always wanted to visit the Lerkendal and their match on the 6th May against fellow powerhouses Valerenga felt like a good match to attend.
The city of Trondheim is a quaint and sleepy place with acres of woodland and mountainous areas stationed like watchmen, casting a curious eye over the painted houses dotted around the stoned pathways. The sea nibbles away at the bays as fishermen preen their ships ready for their next outing. It's a relatively beautiful place and somewhere I would highly recommend visiting for a long weekend (and yes it's very expensive). However, despite the solemn ambience that envelopes Trondheim, suffocating the city's noise like a thick, woven blanket, the sheets are rigorously thrashed off when tens of thousands of Norse men and women grunt and roar passionately in the packed Lerkendal stadium. Saturday the 6th May was one of those days. The sheets were firmly off.
As I arrived at the Lerkendal stadium, despite kickoff being over 90 minutes away, the ground was packed. Players were standing on a small, artificial pitch signing shirts and taking photos with fans, the mascot, a Troll, was stomping around the ground, performing a wiggle and a jig upon request and the statue of the late Nils Arne Eggen, a man synonymous with Rosenborg's success, was standing proud with a flag of the team sticking out of his marble hand. As I was about to head into the club shop to purchase a scarf and shirt, the bellow from the loudspeaker, "bbbbBBBBBROOOOOSAAANBOOOORG" rang out. A black bus parked just inside the stadium had its doors open with a man with a loudspeaker blaring out club chants with fans singing along.
The Lerkendal is a compact stadium with the Ultras sitting to the left of me and the 'Kokos' (Valerenga ultras) flamboyantly displaying the blue and red in the corner of my eye to the right. As the Trondheim faithful cheered as the announcer read the home team's teamsheet and jeered at the mention of any player representing the Pride of Oslo, thick smoke clouded the stadium as Rosenborg fans in unison, row by row, sang the club's anthem.
Rosenborg's tactics were fairly ineffective throughout the game and it's a style of play that angers me when managers encourage their team to "walk the ball into the net" rather than take a risk in the final third. Kjeliti Rekdal appeared to be content with the tepid nature of his team's play: a reoccuring pattern of midfield players breaking through the lines, play it down the flank, play it back to the middle and try to carve an opening. This played into Valerenga's hands who were more than keen to keep numbers back and hit Rosenborg on the counter and had it not been for the alert Reitan at right back making some key blocks, he may have seen his side concede at several stages in the first half. The game appeared to be going into half time scoreless, however Valerenga took the lead in the 44th minute. An attempted tackle from the Rosenborg player did not get enough of a touch to divert the ball out of play and a low cross found Mohamed Okfir free in the center of the box, who rifled it home past goalkeeper Andre Hansen's left hand corner. A good finish sure, but a goal that would have been prevented had the marking been better. Okfir's movement in the box was hardly sleuth-like.
Valerenga turned up in the second half with every intention of continuing from the first; playing aggressively and closing Rosenborg down at every opportunity like a pack of lions. In the 48th minute, one particular player got over-officious and conceded a free kick from just outside the area, with Bjorlo, perhaps the one other player alongside Reitan who impressed me for the home side in the first half, stood over the ball. Anticipation, trepidation and perhaps condensation seeped into the air as the former HamKam man stepped back, ready to rifle the free kick home. May fans, including myself, were expecting a ball played into the box as this was reminiscent of Rosenborg's set piece play in the first half. Bjorlo scanned the net guarded by Sjoeng and proceeded to rifle an excellent free kick right in the top corner of the net, swooping and swerving like a Red Arrow was perhaps doing in my home country at the same time. 1-1 and the early drama didn't stop there.
Valerenga, angry to have conceded the goal, went hunting for the second and a tactical foul by Borlo saw a free kick of Valerenga's own. How sweet would it be to punish the home side with a set piece routine of their own? The ball was played in, headed on by Jensen and who else but Seedy Jatta to glance a header over the despairing Hansen to equalise. A controversial goal as VAR slowed down time to check the goal, but the goal was clear; Seedy was quite clearly in line with the last man and the 20 year old striker did brilliantly to keep onside and then finish the chance like a seasoned pro. For such a young lad, Jatta's off the ball movement was what you may expect from someone 8 years his senior, pulling Rosenborg players out of position and finding small pockets of space that he could use to exploit their backline. Substitute Jayden Nelson almost punished a sleepy Sjoeng as he delayed playing the ball out before an innocuous backpass bounced up from a Valerenga player's boot and hit his hand. Jeers rang out from the home crowd, demanding a penalty. The footage was reviewed and nothing was given; quite rightly in my book.
The game remained a midfield tussle up until around the 70th minute whereby Andre Hansen dived out to divert the ball away from Seedy Jatta, catching none of the ball and all of the Norweigan U20 international. Henrik Bjordal stepped up and slotted the penalty away coolly.
The game ended 3-1 with large jeers ringing out from the home fans. This wasn't a style of football reminiscent of the Eggen days where they would relentlessly attack and go for the throat. No, this was football played by a conservative, risk-adverse manager who seemingly values the 'quality' of a goal rather than the quantity of goals scored. A very disappointing performance.
Overall, I would honestly recommend going to watch a game in the Eliteserien if you have not done so before. The league has had some blockbuster results in recent gameweeks at the time of this post such as a 4-3 win by Lillestrom over Valerenga, a 7-3 mauling of HamKam by Viking and another pulsating 4-3 by Lillestron, this time taking apart Stromsgodset. The Rosenborg fans were brilliant throughout the game, relentlessly chanting and backing their team even after they were 3-1 down and showing no signs of a fight. Apparently, after watching a video of the fans, one punter claimed that Swedish and Danish fans are much more hardcore than Norweigan ones, citing Djurgardens IF and FC Copenhagen as two examples of this.
I guess I've got to test that out sometime...
Rosenborg 1-3 Valerenga 06/05/23
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