Egil Olsen, the ingenious Norwegian

By Sindre Trygsland, writing from Lancaster, England

The Norwegian national team, currently ranked 11th in the world, will be placed in the top seeded pot when the qualification groups for the 2014 World Cup are drawn, meaning that the Nordic country will avoid strong nations such as England, Germany and Netherlands. This is a great advantage for Norway as it provides them a real opportunity to qualify for the World Cup. How can it be that a small country like Norway, with only 5 million habitants and a climate not suited for 12 month football is able to achieve those impressive results?

The answer is simple: Egil Olsen. Egil Olsen, aged 69, is the manager for the Norwegian national team who possesses a brilliant track record. He was appointed in 1990, replacing Ingvar Stadheim, where he qualified Norway for the 94 and 98 World Cup. The country hadn’t qualified for the prestigious tournament since 1938, so this was a clear colossal achievement. The manager established a win record of 56% from 91 games and his terrific World Cup 94 qualification campaign ranked Norway second in the world, behind Brazil.

Egil Olsen resigned after the World Cup in France where Norway were knocked out in the last 16, after a close 1-0 defeat to Italy. Norway had earlier qualified from the group stage by beating holders Brazil 2-1 in Marseille and are the only national team who have never lost against Brazil. In 4 matches they have achieved two wins and two draws.

Olsen, known as “the professor”, has a rare approach to the game. He prefers football with few touches within the team, attacking the opposition when their team is out of balance and he practises set-pieces to perfection. Olsen knows that the amount of technically gifted players in Norway is limited and therefore he focuses on other areas of the game which they can master. Even if Norway has produced some top players during Olsen’s reign such as Solskjær, Flo, Bratseth, Berg, Johnsen, Mykland, Riise, Pedersen and Hangeland, the quality in the team could never be compared to the best nations. That is why he opts to focus on the tactical, physical and mental elements of the game, to compensate for the lack of technical attributes.

Olsen is an expert when it comes to giving his players confidence. A good example of this was when he told the players “remember not to underestimate England”. Of course England was massive favourites, but Olsen gave his players the thought that they were actually the better team.

During his first period as national coach long balls were an important attacking weapon for Norway. They had a feared move called the “Flo-pass”. The move was about crossing the ball up to the physical strong right winger from the left back. Norway combined this with a lot of movement around the winger, to pick up the headers he produced. The right winger was usually Jostein Flo, and that is the explanation of the name of the move. Even if the tactic was predictable, and a lot of their opponents were aware of this, it was very difficult to defend against. Olsen was also one of the first to regularly use zonal marking instead of the man to man marking.

In Olsen’s second period, that is still ongoing, Olsen has a more modern approach to the game, but still swear to the same philosophy. The main point of the Norwegian style of play is still the same, to attack with few touches when the opponent is unbalanced, but not as extreme as earlier. Even if his predecessor Åge Hareide didn’t manage to get great results with the Norwegian team, Olsen has done it again. Other coaches have tried to play more attractive football with Norway, possession football, but they have all experienced the difficulty of it. I believe it’s almost impossible for Norway to play possession football and manage to get good results at the same time. As earlier mentioned, Norway don’t have the necessary quality in the squad to pull it of. After 22 games in Olsen’s second period as coach for the Norwegian national team, Norway has a win percentage of 59 %.

The Norwegian national team is maybe not a joy to watch, but with Olsen’s tactical brilliance, and his effective and cynical approach, they keep on winning, and that is the most important thing in football is. Compare the Norwegian squad to nations like France, Serbia, Russia, Cote d’Ivoire and Mexico which is all placed below Norway in the FIFA ranking, and you will understand what an incredible job Egil Olsen has done.

Norway are placed 2nd with 10 points in Group H where they’re battling for a place in the Euro 2012. It’s a competitive group where the leader Portugal and 3rd placed Denmark also possess the same number of points. With three games remamining there’s a good possibility that Norway might qualify for their second European championship. 

UEFA’s World Cup 2014 Qualifying Pots:

Pot 1: Spain, Netherlands, Germany, England, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Norway, Greece

Pot 2: Serbia, Slovenia, Russia, France, Montenegro, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Sweden

Pot 3: Turkey, Czech Republic, Israel, Ireland, Ukraine, Belgium, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria

Pot 4: Lithuania, Albania, Hungary, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Poland

Pot 5: Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Macedonia, Moldova, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Wales

Pot 6: Iceland, Luxembourg, Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, San Marino