It’s March 2022, and there is an excited atmosphere at the Bislett. After signing eight new players over the winter, Lyn 1896 are ready for their first season back in the second tier since the original club was dissolved 12 years ago.
With the Bastionen cheering them on all the way, can Lyn pick up from where they had left off in the 2. divisjon – and make a strong start in the 1. divisjon? Let’s see how Marit Enstad and the boys get on…
SEASON EXPECTATIONS
Hei, det er Marit, and welcome to the official start of our 2022 season. After a busy pre-season, we now have to get to grips with some new opponents in a new league.
In case you need it, here’s how the 1. divisjon works. The top two teams at the end of the season are automatically promoted, and the 3rd-placed team will take on the 14th-placed Eliteserien team for a place in the top flight. The bottom two teams are relegated to the 2. divisjon, with the team finishing 14th facing a two-legged play-off.
The media don’t think we’ll have to worry about relegation this season, as we’re predicted to finish just inside the top half in our first year up. The board are thinking along the same lines and expect a mid-table finish. I don’t know where that’ll leave me if we end up in another relegation battle, but let’s not think about it now…
Our minimum expectation in the Cupen is Round 3 yet again, but despite falling short in each of the last three years, we should have an easier route this time. Teams in the top two divisions are seeded to avoid each other in the first two rounds and will instead be drawn against lower-league sides. First- and second-tier sides will also play their Round 1 matches away from home.
Now let’s get back to the league. Though the majority of 1. divisjon teams are semi-professional, seven clubs hold professional status and can give their players full-time contracts. Those teams will obviously be among the promotion favourites, so don’t expect us to be up there until we turn pro themselves. Because of the extra money we’ll get just by being in this division, I think we could be only a year or two from that next step.
Our league season begins at home to Florø, who are also relatively new to the second tier. They too were promoted this season, despite only finishing 4th in Avdeling 2 of the 2. divisjon [that’s what happens when three reserve teams take up the top three places]. Florø were expected to go straight down, so we were hot favourites to start with a win.
LYN 1896 vs FLORØ (1. divisjon – Match 1)
It was a real struggle at times, but at least we got the win and started the season as we meant to go on. Florø never really posed a threat to us after their attacking midfielder Stefan Aase broke his foot in a 10th-minute tackle from our new anchor Sander Eng Strand.
Martin Trøen had several chances to turn our attacking dominance into a lead, but he was far from his brilliant best. To be fair, Florø’s Dutch goalkeeper Renze Fij made three saves from our star striker in the first half. He then twice denied winger Eirik Haugstad in the second half as a surprise home stalemate loomed.
When Fij saved one more Trøen attempt in the 76th minute, I lost my patience and brought on Niklas Helgesen as Martin’s replacement. The 19-year-old debutant exploded into life just two minutes later, running onto Kot Chol Tafesse‘s through-ball before prodding in a simple finish to break the deadlock.
Our super-sub struck again in stoppage time to kill the game off. Florø’s attempts to launch a late equalising attack faltered when Jesper Isaksen’s square ball was cleared out of our box by Adil Zahid. Helgesen was first to the loose ball, and he dribbled from just inside the opposition half to the penalty area, where his second goal secured an opening-day victory for Lyn.
That second strike from Niklas was named as the 1. divisjon’s best goal of the opening week. I rewarded the youngster with a start in our next game. Could he continue the momentum at Arendal, who finished 14th last season and only stayed up after beating Sandnes Ulf in a promotion/relegation play-off?
ARENDAL vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 2)
No. Instead, it was another 19-year-old striker – on-loan Odd prospect Lars Christian Nygård – who claimed the points for Arendal. Nygård had exceptional pace and work, which he showed in the 28th minute by bursting clear of Benjamin Zalo to convert a through-ball from winger Sander Risan. It was a moment to forget for our right-back Markus Frydenlund, whose weak header had gifted possession to Risan.
Despite that, Frydenlund and Zalo actually had decent games, performing admirably to stop Arendal increasing their lead. It was just the attackers who let us down by frequently failing to create enough opportunities from inside the penalty area.
One of our better chances came in the 66th minute, when Joackim Olsen Solberg‘s left-wing cross was nodded towards goal by substitute winger Yannis Moula. It was well caught by goalkeeper Christian Sukke, but the rest of our attacks sucked, and we didn’t deserve anything from this match.
More disappointment came a few days later. Having already seen Olsen Solberg overtake him in the left-back pecking order, Oskar Hansen‘s rough start to the year continued when he sprained his knee ligaments. Oskar was ruled out for the better part of two months, and I now had to rotate my full-backs more carefully.
LYN 1896 vs BODØ/GLIMT (1. divisjon – Match 3)
Next up was a home game with Bodø/Glimt, who would’ve been in the Eliteserien if they’d won a final play-off against Aalesund last year. I wasn’t expecting very much from this game – certainly not after the first 15 minutes – but we eventually came away with an excellent 2-2 draw.
Glimt enjoyed a fantastic start, with two very early goals from winger Herman Lund Halvorsen seemingly putting them in control. Both of his strikes were set up by Spanish midfielder José Ángel – the first from a corner, and the second from a clever pass into the penalty area. The visitors found our net again on 26 minutes, but attacking midfielder Edo Kayembe’s strike was flagged for offside.
A series of excellent saves from our teenage keeper Eivind Aalvik later in the first half just about kept us in contention at 2-0 down. For the second half, we switched to a direct counter-attacking, with Marcus Mehnert coming on for Haugstad as a left-winger and Tafesse moving to the right flank. Though Mehnert struggled to make an impact, our other changes would pay off.
The first glimmer of hope came seven minutes after the restart, when José Ángel tripped Mads Sande just outside the penalty area. The stage was set for one of our new free-kick masters – 18-year-old Fredrik Sannes – to lift this set-piece over the wall and beyond the goalkeeper’s reach.
Sande also contributed to our equaliser in the 64th minute, threading a pinpoint pass into the box for Tafesse to calmly stroke in from a tight angle. Though an off-colour Trøen wasted an opportunity to complete the comeback just two minutes later, I was still happy to leave with a point that nearly wasn’t ours. That put us in a solid mid-table position of 8th after three games.
In midweek, our attentions turned to Round 1 of the Cupen. We made a lengthy journey north to a rainy Gjøvik – and a potentially tough encounter with our near-namesakes Gjøvik-Lyn, who finished 2nd in their 3. divisjon group last year.
GJØVIK-LYN vs LYN 1896 (Cupen – Round 1)
In fact, it was SO tough that we were nearly on the wrong end of an upset! While we were wasteful with our many chances in the first half, Gjøvik-Lyn took their only one to take an unexpected 1-0 lead into the break. Their moment of celebration came from a 10th-minute counter-attack which ended with winger Sivert Øien Bakke firing in an excellent 25-yard finish.
I demanded a massive improvement in the second half, during which we upped the tempo and stretched play out wider to try and disrupt Gjøvik’s defences. We continued banging at the door until the 63rd minute, when Zahid made the breakthrough – at our 24th attempt on goal. Adil pounced on a poor defensive clearance to half-volley in our equaliser from a tight angle.
Our 25th shot – just two minutes later – was also a success. Big Ben Zalo came off the bench to volley home a pinpoint corner from Zahid and put us 2-1 up. Though we couldn’t enhance our lead in the next 25 minutes, we had still done just enough to progress.
The Round 2 draw would put us up against familiar opposition roughly a fortnight later. In a repeat of our Cupen opener from last year, we would be at home to 3. divisjon side Sola. Our prospects of finally making it to Round 3 – and a potential meeting with one of the big boys – had just become a lot brighter.
Unfortunately, Gaute Høberg Vetti would miss the Sola game – and the two league matches before it – after pulling a calf muscle against Gjøvik-Lyn. To give me another headache, our other deep-lying midfield playmaker Sannes suffered a knee ligament injury in training and would also be out for around a fortnight.
BRYNE vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 4)
Our trip to Bryne proved to be just as frustrating as Gjøvik. This time, though, we couldn’t get a result against a side who’d lost their first three league matches by an aggregate score of 9-0.
We once again conceded in the early stages, as home striker Henrik André Lauritsen beat Olsen Solberg to a left-wing cross and flicked a header towards goal. Though Aalvik pushed it away, Lauritsen scored the follow-up, and we were losing 1-0 after only 11 minutes.
We could have had an equaliser within eight minutes. Trøen headed in an excellent floating delivery from Frydenlund, but – not for the first time in his Lyn career – Martin was too quick for his own good and was caught offside.
That would be the only time we got the ball in the Bryne net. Though we bossed possession and had far more shots than the opposition, we just couldn’t cancel Lauritsen’s opener out. Thanks to a combination of poor finishing, strong defending (particularly from Krister Wemberg) and some downright awful luck, we returned home empty-handed.
LYN 1896 vs HØDD (1. divisjon – Match 5)
There was no luck involved in our next game back at the Bislett. For the first 30 minutes, we held our own against a Hødd side who finished 8th last season. After that, though, Arne Sandstø’s visitors clinically picked our defence apart and left us in pieces.
Things started to go south in the 34th minute. On-loan Molde winger Frank Bizoza latched onto a direct pass from midfielder Andreas Breimyr, and he then skipped past Joakim Rishovd‘s sliding challenge before completing a great move. Bizoza then doubled Hødd’s lead four minutes later, as his 20-yard shot crashed against the underside of the bar before bizarrely deflecting in off Aalvik’s back.
The men in blue left us feeling even more so in the 45th minute, when they went 3-0 ahead. Markus Ryland’s long ball from the defence to Marius Hagen on the right wing was then crossed low into our box, where poacher Håkon Brautaset did the rest.
I desperately switched to a 4-4-2 diamond for the second half, but Sandstø’s direct attacking game simply allowed Hødd to bypass our midfield and prolong their dominance. Hagen got a second assist in the 63rd minute with an excellent floated cross that was headed in by former Norway youth winger Ole Sebastian Sundgot.
Our miserable evening was summed up ten minutes later, when Trøen lost the ball with an overly ambitious side-footed pass to Martin Holmen. Before we knew it, Hødd had hit us on the break, with Sundgot turning provider for Brautaset’s second goal.
My most humiliating experience as Lyn manager ended in a 5-0 defeat that left us just one point off the bottom three. There was no need to panic after only five games, but with confidence low, it was hard to stay positive. Just as well that we had Sola in the Cupen next then, wasn’t it?
LYN 1896 vs SOLA (Cupen – Round 2)
We bounced back from our Hødd hiding with a strong showing to end our Round 2 hoodoo in the Cupen. Scoring two early goals indirectly from free-kicks put us well on our way to success against Sola.
We took only seven minutes to break the deadlock, as Olsen Solberg’s free-kick delivery from the right was headed in by Sande for his first goal of the season. Four minutes later, it was Trøen’s turn to break his duck for the year. Though his initial shot from Tafesse’s set-piece was parried by goalkeeper Mathias Paulsen, the rebound was easily tapped in.
Sola were largely limited to shooting from distance before a third goal in the 54th minute killed them off. Olsen Solberg claimed another assist from a dead-ball situation when his corner was deftly flicked in by the head of our centre-half Tobias Ødegård. While it would have been nice to have increased our lead from open play, I was still happy with a solid 3-0 win.
Jokke was very thankful to me for keeping faith in him after the Hødd defeat. While the veteran left-back’s early league performances had not been great, this felt like a turning point. I now expected us to see the real Joackim Olsen Solberg in subsequent games.
The Cupen Round 3 draw took place a few days later, giving us a home tie against top-flight Kongsvinger in the first week of May. KIL were becoming a bit of a yo-yo club, so this felt like a great opportunity to cause an upset. Sadly, there would be no Bislett reunion with former Lyn midfielder Marius Østvold, who had broken his ribs in his current side’s Round 2 victory over Donn.
That Cupen tie will begin the next chapter of this story. In the meantime, we will finish this part with a league trip to Mjøndalen, who were in mid-table yet unbeaten since an opening-day defeat to Sandefjord. Their boss was Mark Dempsey – a 58-year-old Englishman who was managing his fifth Scandinavian club, having previously been Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s assistant at Molde and Cardiff.
MJØNDALEN vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 6)
England beats Norway – and not for the first time in recent history either. At least we avoided a repeat of the 7-2 extra-time thrashing Mjøndalen gave us in the Cupen two years ago.
By full-time, though, I was asking a lot of ‘What if’ questions. What if Anders Lübeck‘s 4th-minute header had caused Benjamin Boujar more problems in the Mjøndalen goal? What it Helgesen hadn’t twisted his knee after half an hour, leading to his substitution at the break? What if his replacement Trøen hadn’t strayed offside to slide Haugstad’s flick-on into the net four minutes after the restart?
Most importantly, what if Frydenlund hadn’t stuck a stray leg out and upended Mjøndalen winger Christopher Cheng in our penalty area after 64 minutes. That needlessly handed Kornelius Hansen a chance to open the scoring from 12 yards, which the 21-year-old shadow striker (and ex-Southampton trainee) gladly took.
Nine minutes later, Hansen caused mayhem in our penalty area with a corner delivery that led to several blocked shots from ‘De Brune’. Eventually, creative midfielder Didrik Fredriksen found enough space to drive his shot home for 2-0.
We couldn’t recover from that setback, going down to a disappointing fourth league defeat in six games. Bryne’s 1-0 win at Tromsø the next day meant that we slipped to 14th – the relegation play-off place. Indeed, only goal difference was keeping us out of the automatic relegation spots.
I know it’s early in the season, but already I’m worried. Since battling past Florø, we’ve not looked comfortable in our new league, especially not defensively. The comeback against Bodø/Glimt was encouraging, but we’ve already lost three games against other semi-professional clubs.
Maybe I’ve underestimated the jump in quality between the 2. divisjon and the 1. divisjon. We’ve been playing a very similar, positive game to what we were using last season, which could well be the problem. I guess we need to be more cautious against stronger teams and maybe adopt a more direct approach away from home.
Perhaps I could’ve been more ruthless when changing my squad. Long-serving defenders like Lübeck and Rishovd don’t look very reliable anymore, and the firepower Trøen had in the third tier has deserted him. I’m actually starting to think that Martin’s days as a Bastionen favourite might be numbered.
One glimmer of hope is our finances. Over the past couple of months, the board have invested €550,000 into the club, putting our overall balance over €600,000!
Even so, we need to have a big summer if we don’t want to end up back where we started. After last year’s glories, that would be a disaster.
That is a rough start indeed, but at least the Cupen offers the Bastionen some cause for optimism. Come back next week to see if Lyn can cause a minor shock against Kongsvinger, and maybe even turn their league fortunes around as well.
“Takk for lesing!”
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