"Two weeks and one friendly before the season starts, and I am experiencing something unfamiliar: uncertainty. Is it just me and my nerves, as usual, or is RBK weakened before the hunt for the 13th gold in a row has even started?"

Åsmund Sjøberg, commentator of rbkweb.com, is worried:

"We have let in seven goals in two matches, against teams like Kongsvinger and Hammarby. This have caused worried thoughts to swirl around in my black and white head. Such results we are not used to, and with the kind of quality we have in our team, especially 2-4 versus Kongsvinger should never have happened. But what is wrong, really? Anything at all? Except from last year, RBK has always been kind of rusty in the pre-season matches, and in the first games of the series. We don't really get our gameplay in top shape, usually, until late summer brings dew to the grass of Lerkendal... But still, 0-3 against Hammarby, 2-4 against Kongsvinger..."

"I am not so sure that RBK can afford conceding many points to this year's top challengers this spring. Teams like Brann, LSK, Lyn and Molde has grown stronger, Viking has gotten a new stadium, and Vålerenga has played well against Newcastle. I do in many ways feel that this is a decisive year in regards to how the elite of Norwegian football will appear the coming years. With the coming Royal League, and the cuts in player wages, many clubs have put great effort into catching up on RBK this very year. If RBK turns out to be as far ahead this year as the previous, the resignation will be complete, and the admiration will be even greater from team leaders around Norway. But if the season sees a real battle for the gold, between more than two teams, well, then club leaders, investors, sponsors and "rich uncles" all around will sense blood, and put in a great effort to end RBK's dominance of Norwegian football."

"This is exactly why it is so important for RBK to win just this year's series, and it is so much easier to start the league feeling safe and sure that one has performed well in the last games before the season starts, than to face the opening matches feeling somewhat insecure about one's own form. When insecure, it is so much easier to make that extra unneccessary pass in the midfield, instead of the decisive pass forward that would have given Harald Martin Brattbakk a free line towards the goal."

"Maybe this is why I am a bit extra nervous this year, when the losses appear before the series starts. It should really be no reason to worry. After all, we have the best players, and we are the best team."

"What other Norwegian team could have beaten the winners of the Swedish league by five goals to none? And what other Norwegian team toys around with Benfica like we did on March 3rd?"

"No, better stop worrying. After all, it's just friendlies..." Sjøberg concludes.