Published 02.56
FRISCO. Erling Braut Haaland does his part, after 10,220 days Norway wins a World Cup match again.
Long road to the WC?
It depends entirely on what you compare it to.
The other week they drove across Sweden both lengthwise and crosswise, and now, in a way, it was time again, with a slightly different scenography.
Half of Norway was out in the streets and squares and Ullevaal to see their team play World Cup football again, quite a lot of people had rowed all the way across the Atlantic to see it in place and place too.
Foxborough, summer heat, Ødegaard and Haaland in the lead.
Martin Ødegaard is still only 27 years old, but he has managed to miss three European Championships and two World Cups. Now he was finally there.
On the other side was not a Swedish team this time.
Only half.
Amir Al-Ammari (raised on the heights of Öxnehaga in Huskvarna) and Hussein Ali (from Gröndal in Malmö) in the starting eleven. On the bench were Eskiltuna’s Rebin Suluka, Bergsjön’s Kevin Yakob, Vistaberg’s Aimar Sher and Ahmed Qasem from Motala.
Many Swedish players have gone before them, wearing the Iraqi national team shirt. But none of them have played in the WC premiere.
What did it look like?
If it was impressive to see Norway blow away an action-paralyzed Sweden in a training match, it was doubly impressive to see them wrestle down a really good opposition in a WC premiere.
Iraq’s Australian captain Graham Arnold had spoken of his players needing to be brave if they were to stand a chance against Norway’s world stars.
They listened, and they obeyed.
The WC’s most impressive journey
4-4-2, aggressive pressing game that alternately started high, alternately low, but with the clear idea of keeping the giants Haaland and Sørloth a good distance from the penalty area.
They solved it well, stressed Ødegaard and shut down the attacking threats. Up front they had Amir Al-Ammari’s world-class left foot in set pieces, and Ali Al-Hamadi’s weight.
It was enough to raise some concerns in a World Cup unfamiliar Norway. They are here to do very big things, but for half an hour things felt a little more awkward than many thought.
Then Haaland got the ball in front of the goal.
Hussein Ali had had good control of Antonio Nusa’s electric whisker feet so far, but when an overlapping Wolfe helped, he was out of luck. Throw-in in the penalty area, Haaland in place. 1–0.
Relax! Relax! Relax! And there was Norway’s entire strike force on a platter. From Sørloth, who started the attack by loyally sinking deep, via the incredible Nusa, to the soccer cyborg Haaland.
It is impressive.
But teams can shine in different ways, players can impress in many ways.
When Amir Al-Ammari from Småland hits a dream post and Aymen Hussein – alone against four, five, many Norwegian backs – powerfully nod in Iraq’s second World Cup goal ever, it is an end point to perhaps the most impressive journey of this tournament.
This Iraqi team consists largely of Iraqi boys from the diaspora, whose parents fled from war and chaos. Motala’s Ahmed Qasem, a half-time substitute, decided to play for his mother’s country a couple of weeks ago (she was crying with happiness, he said).
Aymen Hussein has always known, he has always been Iraq’s own son, with his feet riveted to the ground.
When he was twelve, his father was shot dead in Baghdad, a bullet straight through the heart in an al-Qaeda attack. A few years later, the Islamic State took over the home village up in al-Hawija, and Hussein’s older brother was one of those who disappeared never to be found.
– It wasn’t the first terrorist story to hit my family. Probably not the last either, he has said.
He offered to stop playing football to help the family, but his mother asked him to continue.
He stayed in Iraq, he played his football, and here he was now, in a World Cup that he himself had pushed Iraq to. Those seven hours that he was interrogated before border control in the United States let him in was a trifle in the grand scheme of things.
Aymen Hussein was to lead his people in the World Cup, he has defied al-Qaeda and IS to do so.
Now he scored.
Nothing in it was unfair, not on a human level and not on a strictly footballing level either.
4–1 was just the beginning
Iraq played an excellent first half, they didn’t even concede when goalkeeper Jalal Hassan gave away a goal to Haaland.
They chased an equaliser, they chased well. Based on the conditions, the individual qualities, they got more out of their game than Norway.
But of course it wasn’t enough. Norway has Haaland (two goals, scoring league lead up there with Mbappé and Ayari…), they have Nusa, they have Sørloth and a lot behind them.
They were under pressure, but they didn’t tremble, and Ståle Solbakken couldn’t get a better start than that on this WC adventure.
When he lapped Erlin Braut Haaland after the final whistle, Leo Østigård had put in a corner and Kristian Thorstvedt finished by pushing forward an Iraqi own goal in stoppage time.
They weren’t great, but even when they’re half-baked they have great players.
4–1 was just the beginning for Norway. For Iraq, it was something else.
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