Rosenborg - Bodø/Glimt 3-0
By Håvard Lindheim, 11 June 2004, 12:59
Rosenborg played with ease and ended at the top of the list after the rescheduled game against Bodø/Glimt. Chrisis? Where?
3-0 CHEERING: The Rosenborg players celebrate the 3-0 goal of Roar Strand (no. 6).
Photo: Åsmund Sjøberg
Ok. Rbk is merely at second, as our goal score is worse than league leader Tromsø, and the 12-in-a-row winners have one game more. Nevertheless, there should be no doubt that Rosenborg will be fighting in the top for another year.
Three points and three goals was of course nice, but it was perhaps just as nice that Ola By Rise let two youngsters have a go as the game closed to an end. To great cheers, the 16-year old Per Ciljan Skjelbred and the 18-year old Alexander Tettey both debuted in the Tippeliga tonight. rbkweb.com congratulates!
Originally, the home match against last year's double silver medallionists from Bodø was supposed to be played at Sun June 20th, but as Lerkendal stadium is closed down Thursday due to the work with switching out the old grass mat, the game was rescheduled. As a result, the next home match is not until July 25th, against Fredrikstad.
The home crowd smelled entertainment, and almost 19.000 spectators met for the game.
Bodø/Glimt has not managed to follow up last year's great season, and was at a modest 11th place before this game. And the northerners were not going to get any change for the better this night. Rosenborg opened hard, and after 11 minutes, Ståle Stensaas put the hosts in the lead with a superb free kick from 25 meters. Fredrik Winsnes moved the ball half a metre to the side, where Stensaas came running and hammered it. The kick went via the wall and up in the cross of the goal, behind Tor Egil Horn. With this, Stensaas showed that Mikael Dorsin - who arrived Thursday to sign his contract - will get competition for the left back spot.
Halfway through the first half came 2-0 and 3-0. First, Frode Johnsen was the hot man. Roar Strand flicked a crossball from Harald Brattbakk over to Johnsen, who volleyed the ball in from short range. The RBK forward has now scored in five league games in a row, and climbs to the top of the goalgetter list with his seven league goals so far this year. Not bad for a player that was left out of the team in the opening game, and after that played several matches as a midfielder!
Rosenborg kept on dominating. Roar Strand, who stands without contract after this season, plays for his future in the RBK shirt - and continued where he left off at the end of the Ham-Kam match at Sunday. This time, he went through the complete Glimt defence before putting the 3-0 goal.
The game did not see any more goals. But Rosenborg continued their goodfoot playing, and should probably had made more goals and hence passed Tromsø on the goal difference (RBK 20-13 = +8, Tromsø 18-9 = +9). Azar Karadas and substitute Øyvind Storflor were probably closest to a score with some good attempts.
Anyway: RBK is now second in the table, and that must be soothing for Ola By Rise, who has had to endure heavy critizism from the media lately.
"Now we have won two league matches in a row, and not least, we have played two good games in a row. It is a long way still, but we are out of the bad trend that plagued us some matches ago," Ola By said to Norwegian broadcaster NRK after the game.
PS! Bodø/Glimt has not won a league match at Lerkendal since 1979!
