For some clubs, the Norwegian Cup is about the first rounds. The opportunity to create a public celebration against your nearest 1st division or elite series team. For some, detonating the cup bomb can be the highlight of their career, and not least the saving grace for the club’s coffers. It was great for a 17-year-old Strindheim player to meet Rosenborg in 2009. It was worse for a slightly older Ranheim player to lose his head and lose against Verdal in the first round in 2012. Surely fun for the third division team. For many others, it should be about the opportunity to win something. The opportunity to lift the King’s Cup. And then get out into Europe. The chance is significantly greater in the cup, where you are six games away from Ullevaal. THE GOAL: Molde is the reigning champion after beating Bodø/Glimt in last year’s cup final. Photo: Svein Ove Ekornesvåg / Svein Ove Ekornesvåg Despite this, I have not always experienced that the cup is given high priority. Many are afraid As a player, I have often felt the atmosphere within a team around the cup rounds. At the start, it’s just a matter of getting through in one piece. Players who almost breathe a sigh of relief when they don’t have to play the opening games. It has often annoyed me that several of those who deliver the goods in the big games, can hardly bear to tie their shoelaces for such games. It is often just as well that someone else has to go out and do the work these days, but it would probably have made the job easier if this was not the case. You have to get out of your comfort zone, put on your work gloves and have the courage to do the dirty work away against a team from lower divisions. Many players see the first two rounds of the cup as two of the worst games of the year. One knows it will hurt a bit in the duels. You know that the ball will bounce and bounce on a slightly poor surface. And you know that the opponent often plays his form for cup finals. Even if the differences between the teams are to be great, this can be leveled out quite quickly by all these mental factors. The cup always offers surprises. Here when Brattvåg knocked out Molde in the 2nd round in 2018. “Just” the cup? When you get to the third and fourth round, Ullevaal still seems distant to most. Often these matches appear on a Wednesday or Thursday, between two series matches. The preparations are not always experienced as good and clear, the match next weekend is clearly in the back of the mind. The feeling inside the dressing room, and pretty much the whole club, is that a loss here disappears faster than with three points out of pocket the Sunday before or after. “Yes, yes, it was just the cup”. Sometimes this is also clearly reflected through team selection. Players are usually to be rested in these, new constellations are tested approximately for the first time. Most relationships are erased and the possibility of victory is naturally reduced accordingly. A clear priority from most, but shouldn’t it be the opposite for many teams? Three games in a week should be fine anyway, but if you have to choose, shouldn’t you put everything in the pot where the possibility of winning something is greatest? No rule without exception, but for many teams the cup games should be seen as the most important of the season and prioritized accordingly. THE SENSATION: These are the Tromsø newspapers after the cup final loss to Hødd in 2012. “Here we were really supposed to celebrate Tromsø IL’s cup gold. – But we had no plan B”, says the black cover of Nordlys. Photo: Jan-Morten Bjørnbakk / NTB The attendance figures in many places give me the feeling that the same thoughts are also creeping in among many supporters. The third round of the cup draws about half as many spectators as the league match the following Sunday. Maybe not even that. One hardly begins to hope or believe in an Oslo trip before a potential semi-final is kicked off. It is usually too late. The cup is usually history for your team long before that time. Of course, many factors come into play here, but one would wish that the same number who are drooling for a finals ticket if the time comes, also appeared in the third and fourth rounds. The biggest opportunity Over thirty games in the series, the wheat is usually separated from the wheat, and some clubs are, as of today, a couple of horse’s heads ahead. In the cup, however, you are only six games away from a trip to Ullevaal and a real party weekend. Only seven games away from the King’s Cup. This should motivate, this should inspire. Perhaps a cup triumph is also the start of something bigger, but is enough always put into the pot to achieve this? Unfortunately, many good careers end without a league championship or the Royal Cup. Many lifelong supporter relationships also end without a trophy or trip to Europe. I have been lucky. I have been there. Wearing the dark blue suit. Fly down to Oslo. Pasta way too early on a Sunday morning. The King’s Song. The King’s Cup. I have been lucky. I have been there. Cup final weekend with my mates. Bus trip. Robber stories. A long weekend in the capital you will never forget. Both parts are enormously tempting to repeat. The road there is tough, but not impossible. You have to believe in it, you have to prioritize it. Because the cup is your biggest opportunity. To win something. Experience something. As a player and as a supporter.
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The cup – the real opportunity – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
