Marked for Bendik Berntsen
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Sep 2031
No end in sight to Odd's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Odd has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad8 Sep 2031
25 days out for Alexander Singh after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Odd will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad8 Sep 2031
334 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Words exchanged at Odd
Zakaria Mugeese and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings8 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Sep 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Justin Salmon commits to Odd for another 2 years.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
Odd pick somebody else ahead of Jacob Buus
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match6 Sep 2031
Odd and IK Start cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. IK Start came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 May 2031
A fracture rules Sebastian Hansen out for 79 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 May 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jonah Disch
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match24 May 2031
9 matches without a win for Odd
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Odd are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings26 May 2031
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 May 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 May 2031
A row about effort at Odd
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Rønningen Jørgensen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 May 2031
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout26 May 2031
Somebody else is better right now than Jacob Buus
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Match24 May 2031
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. IK Start defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom7 Oct 2030
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
A defender's goal wins it for Odd — 7.92
1 for Samuel Skree Skjeldal, marked 7.92, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Match5 Oct 2030
Odd make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Odd have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Tempers go at Odd
Josef Baccay was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Oct 2030
A row about effort at Odd
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Mugeese was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match5 Oct 2030
It finished 2‑1, and it was Elscha Furaha’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Odd.
Squad7 Oct 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bendik Berntsen and Odd agree another 4 years.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Sep 2030
The wait goes on for Odd
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad9 Sep 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jacob Buus and Odd agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Words at Odd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Mugeese is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Words exchanged at Odd
Samuel Skree Skjeldal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
Marked 7.41. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout9 Sep 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Erling Ryerson chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Market9 Sep 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mukhtar Adamu has his answer from Odd; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match7 Sep 2030
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. IK Start defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 May 2030
Chastening afternoon for Odd
A 0‑3 beating by IK Start was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match25 May 2030
5 matches without a win for Odd
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Odd are no longer polite ones.
Match25 May 2030
5 matches without a goal for Odd
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad27 May 2030
Tempers go at Odd
Elscha Furaha was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad27 May 2030
Words at Odd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josef Baccay is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout27 May 2030
The manager makes an example of Nikolas Walstad
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom27 May 2030
Nobody left the Odd dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout27 May 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Erling Ryerson left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings27 May 2030
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.