Everyone at Lyn 1896 is getting ready for a second year in the second tier. Marit Enstad has brought in six brand-new players (and one returning hero) as she attempts to turn the agony of 2022 into ecstasy in 2023.
In this chapter, we’ll see if Marit’s men can make a strong start to the 1. divisjon season. They began last year slowly and only just missed out on automatic promotion, so it really could make all the difference in the final reckoning. (Don’t forget that you can read about Lyn’s pre-season preparations right here if you haven’t already.)
SEASON EXPECTATIONS
Hei, det er Marit, and it’s time to preview the 2023 season in the 1. divisjon. Firstly, though, I’ve got a few bones to pick with this screenshot.
For one thing, do these people still not know that I’ve never used a standard 4-4-2 in my career? Also, I apparently have a ‘slack’ personality now! Why are they questioning my professionalism?!
Anyway, we’re again predicted to finish 8th in the league – five points off where we came last year. We’re ranked just above Jerv, who are one of the seven professional teams. Our promotion odds have also been shortened slightly, from 12-1 to 10-1.
We won’t have an easy start to the season, mind, as our first two games are against sides who were in the play-offs with us last time out. First off is a trip to Tromsø, who knocked us out in the Semi Final after scoring one of THE goals of the season. We’ll then host Fredrikstad, who came 5th and are now expected to slightly improve on that.
After last year’s overachievement, the board are expecting another top-six finish from us. They also want us to reach Round 3 of the Cupen, which is what they’ve consistently expected from us for the last few years. The first round should be simple enough, even though the draw won’t take place until our league opener, but things will surely get tricker after that.
Anyway, Tromsø. Let’s start as we mean to go on, boys…
TROMSØ vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 1)
Hmm… well, I said it wouldn’t be easy, didn’t I? We might have won on our last trek north to Tromsø, but for our second meeting in a row, it was Gutan who prevailed. They were comfortably the better team throughout, showing just why many people were tipping them for promotion.
Our troubles began just four minutes into the new season. Daniel Berntsen sent an excellent corner to his fellow Tromsø midfielder Axel Kryger, whose header comfortably beat Eivind Aalvik in the Lyn goal. Another Berntsen corner deep into the first half threatened to worsen things further, but striker Sigurd Haugen hit the woodwork.
Though we did create equalising chances every now and then, converting them was a problem. Svein Melfjord had a great opening when Adil Zahid sent him through on goal in the 48th minute, but a tame shot was easily pushed behind by keeper Enock Mawete.
Gutan took a 2-0 lead in the 75th minute, thanks partly to a former Lyn youth player. Full-back Martin Knudtzon’s right-wing cross into our box was poorly dealt with by Tobias Ødegård, and Berntsen then exchanged passes with Kryger before driving home. With that second goal, we were condemned to an opening-day defeat.
By the way, if you’re wondering who that Tromsø substitute is, that’s Tommy Fritzøe Östman – a young left-back I considered signing from Skeid before he moved to the Alfheim Stadion. Tor Fritzøe Östman is obviously still going strong at Rosenborg… and I hear Norwich now want to sign him in the summer.
LYN 1896 vs FREDRIKSTAD (1. divisjon – Match 2)
Erm… I think we might have major defensive issues. I’m afraid our Bislett homecoming against Fredrikstad went badly from the 16th minute onwards. Loanee defender Erik Haugland‘s poor attempt to remove right-back Stipan Rakuljic’s cross from our box only found another Croatian in striker Marko Vranjkovic. The ball was sidefooted first-time to winger Lasse Sigurdsen, and we were quickly 1-0 down.
Thankfully, we could always rely on Kot Chol Tafesse to get us back on terms. A 34th-minute cross from Sander Eng Strand took a fortunate deflection off Zahid, and Tafesse curled in a fine equalising finish.
The game was nicely-poised at half-time, but then Fredrikstad burst out of the traps in the second half. Roughly 15 seconds after play restarted, Sigurdsen cut through a wide-open gap in our defence to set up Vranjkovic for the visitors’ second goal. Though another deflected cross soon helped Eirik Haugstad to restore parity again on 51 minutes, all was not well in the Lyn camp.
Just before the hour mark, Markus Frydenlund made a clumsy and very costly foul on Aristokraten wing-back Henrik Bredeli just outside our box. Joona Veteli’s subsequent hanging-ball free-kick was nodded in by Sigurdsen, who then created a fourth away goal – scored by right-winger Håvard Åsheim – barely a minute later.
With a 4-2 win all but sealed, Fredrikstad’s manager Finn Morten Moe started to play games with us. He brought ex-Fulham midfielder Sakari Mattila on in the 67th minute, only to take him back off in the 72nd for striker Tim Nilsen, who then injured his ankle in stoppage time!
NOTODDEN vs LYN 1896 (Cupen – Round 1)
After back-to-back league defeats, I really wasn’t looking forward to our Cupen opener. We had a difficult away draw against Notodden – a mid-table 2. divisjon side who were only relegated from the 1. divisjon in 2021.
This sure was frustrating, even though we eventually won. Both teams missed attempts on goal in the first half, with Notodden looking the slightly better side until four minutes from time. That was when their midfielder Petter Neset lunged two-footed on Tafesse, getting himself a straight red card.
Despite our man advantage, we couldn’t make that count in the second half. Left-winger Brage Karterud was our biggest attacking threat, but he couldn’t convert his chances as a fiesty but low-quality match headed for extra-time.
After 101 minutes, two of our more experienced players finally broke the deadlock. Ødegård shattered Notodden’s resistance with a pinpoint header from Joackim Olsen Solberg‘s corner. We then doubled our lead 10 minutes later, as Melfjord held the ball up brilliantly before crossing to the far post for Karterud to stab in his first Lyn goal.
Notodden did briefly rattle us in the penultimate minute, when midfielder Espen Meland pulled one goal back from 20 yards out. We thankfully managed to see out a 2-1 win and book a Round 2 tie at home to…
…Haugesund, who were the Eliteserien’s surprise early leaders after three straight victories. I had thought that teams from the top two divisions were seeded to avoid each other in the first two rounds. Apparently not!
Before our next league game against Ranheim, I had… what you would say a ‘war or words’ with another newly-promoted manager. For whatever reason, Skeid’s coach Asbjørn Helgeland had singled us out as a team that would struggle to avoid relegation this season. Did he not see how close we came to being promoted last year?
Anyway, I laughed at Helgeland’s comments and said that he should be more concerned about his own team’s chances of survival. His response?
Ah, so Skeid are “much stronger” than Lyn? We’ll see about that when we meet in June, Asbjørn…
RANHEIM vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 3)
[Sigh] Okay, Asbjørn… you might have a point. Ranheim might have just come up from the 2. divisjon, but they punished our profligacy at the EXTRA Arena and added to my early-season worries.
We arguably dominated the first period but consistently failed to find the target. Melfjord had another nightmare in front of goal, as did Niklas Helgesen on the left wing, though Lars Jendal did make some important saves for Ranheim. It was encouraging that Jesper Sandberg and Gaute Høberg Vetti were both passing very well in midfield; we just needed to make our possession count in the second half.
Then came a moment of defensive madness in the 56th minute, after Dariush Karimirouzbehani‘s corner was hoofed upfield by Ranheim midfielder Sondre Farstad. We hadn’t left a single outfield player in our half, allowing home striker Harith Hamoudi to burst through and beat a furious Aalvik! How could we have let that happen?!
I despaired again in the 75th minute, when substitute forward Petter Samdal headed in a Tobias Hestad cross to double our deficit. Sandberg did halve it from the penalty spot five minutes later after Tafesse had been tripped in the area, but we weren’t playing well enough to force in an equaliser.
LYN 1896 vs ARENDAL (1. divisjon – Match 4)
After three consecutive league defeats left us bottom of the 1. divisjon, the pressure was really on when we hosted an inconsistent Arendal side at the Bislett. Lose this match, and we really would be in a relegation battle.
Thank God… but I still can’t work out how we didn’t lose this match, let alone won it! After Tafesse smashed in a delightful opener for us midway through the first half, Arendal put our defence under intense pressure as they looked for a leveller.
Our first scare came in the 27th minute – just three minutes after Kot Chol’s opener. Arendal’s technical inside-forward Preben Skeie had a pop from 25 yards, crashing his shot against the bar.
Aalvik then produced a couple of big saves to keep our noses in front at the break. He had an even bigger role to play in the second half, stopping a clear-cut opportunity from striker Brede Therkelsen in the 60th minute. Four minutes from full-time, Eivind came good twice more to frustrate substitute Håkon Bjørdal Leine.
No matter what Vegard Skorstad’s team threw at us, nothing got past Aalvik and our defence. After surviving 22 shots at goal, we somehow claimed our first clean sheet of the season, not to mention our first league win…
…which lifted us out of the bottom three at the end of April! Don’t get too excited, though, as we were only above Mjøndalen because L came before M in the alphabet. [Thank goodness you’re not managing the Zugzwang Zebras, eh?]
Here’s an interesting fact, Christopher: there are no towns or cities in Norway that begin with the letter Z. [Quite. I look forward to hearing that fact again when the final series of ‘QI’ airs in 2028.]
After that brief detour, let’s return to the story and see if we could cause another upset in the Cupen…
LYN 1896 vs HAUGESUND (Cupen – Round 2)
It wasn’t to be. Despite giving a decent account of ourselves against the 3rd-best team in last year’s Eliteserien, it was Haugesund’s more clinical finishing that won the tie.
The experienced Danish striker Frederik Gytkjær was always likely to be a threat for FKH, and so he proved after just 11 minutes. A left-footed volley from Alexander Stølås’s free-kick crept just past Aalvik, and we stayed 1-0 behind until half-time. Though Benjamin Zalo had found the net in response in the 28th minute, he was offside when converting Alexander Uran‘s cross.
Another of Stølås’ free-kicks unravelled us in the first minute of the second half, after striker Fredrik Dahl had been upended by Lyn namesake Fredrik Sannes. The left-back – playing his 10th straight season at Haugesund – gave himself a belated 34th birthday present with a stunning 30-yard strike.
We looked out of the tie, but a couple of 20-year-olds gave us a brief glimmer of hope on 79 minutes. Frydenlund’s long ball up the right flank was driven home from an angle by Melfjord, who scored his first competitive goal since returning to Lyn. That earned Svein the ‘man of the match’ award, though it wasn’t enough to continue our Cupen run.
LYN 1896 vs SARPSBORG (1. divisjon – Match 5)
Another tough home game awaited us in the league afterwards. Sarpsborg were already flying high in 2nd place under Eirik Bakke’s management, having just been relegated from the Eliteserien after a decade. Even so, we managed to hold them to a 1-1 draw in a hard-fought encounter.
Haugstad got us off to the perfect start after nine minutes, escaping his marker to volley in a left-wing cross from Uran. Our lead lasted for 14 minutes until inside-forward Kristoffer Larsen struck from the edge of the area to pull Særpingene level.
Both teams had chances to go ahead just before the break. Helgesen’s 40th-minute free-kick was saved by Sarpsborg keeper Aslak Falch, whose team-mate Martin Hansen – a Norway Under-19s defender – later hit the post.
The second half was a real battle, with the referee handing out five yellow cards. Quality chances were few and far between, though Helgesen briefly sent the Bastionen wild in the 82nd minute when he finished a long-range Zahid shot that had come back off the post. Unfortunately, Niklas was clearly offside, and we had to settle for one point instead of all three.
JERV vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 6)
This time last year, an excellent away win over Jerv kick-started our season after a very shaky start. History repeated itself at the J.J. Ugland Stadion, where we dismantled John Arne Riise’s team to record just a second win in six league outings!
Mind you, it wasn’t straightforward from the start. It took us almost the entire first period to get going against a similarly nervy Jerv side who’d also won just once in the league this far. The breakthrough came just before half-time, when Zalo towered over the defence to nod Zahid’s corner past the rushing goalkeeper Daniel Ravneng.
We then scored three second-half goals in fairly quick succession to take firm control of the game. Melfjord scored the first of them in the 53rd minute, connecting with Uran’s long through-ball before beating Ravneng. Our other Odd loanee completed the rout 12 minutes later, as Haugland scored his first Lyn goal with a header from Sannes’ corner.
However, it was the second goal of that streak – our third of the match – which really showed us at our very best. In the space of about a minute, we completed 24 successive passes before Tafesse completed a flowing move by tapping Yannis Moula‘s right-wing centre into the net. For a moment there, it felt like we were Barcelona!
The scoring stopped at 4-0, but Jerv’s nightmare continued in the 69th minute, when midfielder Thomas Zernichow injured his ankle ligaments and had to come off. The final whistle just over 20 minutes later ended their suffering, while we celebrated climbing up another place to 10th – and moving to within three points of the play-off spots.
LEVANGER vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 7)
Then came an incredible match at Levanger. The first half wasn’t amazing, though we did open the scoring in bizarre fashion after just six minutes.
Dariush’ long pass towards Melfjord went long, but home defender Halvor Hovstad and goalie Simen Lillevik each waited for the other to clean up the loose ball. That allowed Svein to surge ahead and take the ball, which he fired against the post before converting at the second attempt!
The rest of the game was very even, though it wasn’t until the final 20 minutes that it exploded into life. Lyn captain Zalo put our lead in jeopardy when he bundled Levanger striker Oskar Johannes Løken over in the box. The referee pointed to the spot, where Løken stepped forward to equalise.
In the 73rd minute, barely two minutes after losing the advantage, we regained it. After the hosts failed to clear Olsen Solberg’s corner, Moula crossed the ball back into their area, where Melfjord popped up with a powerful header.
That wasn’t the match-winner, as Levanger got back level by the 80th minute. Our defenders weren’t well-placed to deal with Adrian Olsen Teigen’s drilled right-wing cross, which Løken half-volleyed home to match Melfjord’s brace.
By full-time, though, another player had got a double for himself. Two quickfire goals in three minutes from substitute Helgesen – the first assisted by another killer Moula cross, and the second set up by Melfjord – earned us a thrilling 4-2 victory. More importantly, we moved into the top half for the first time this season!
That performance got five of our players into the 1. divisjon Team of the Week. Svein obviously got the nod, but so did our entire back four, despite us shipping two goals.
Melfjord’s performance had impressed many people, lot least our former playmaker Henrik Lehne Olsen, who witnessed it first-hand in a Levanger jersey! Before our next game at Tromsdalen, Lehne Olsen spoke to the press and compared the 20-year-old hotshot with Martin Trøen! [High praise, indeed!]
TROMSDALEN vs LYN 1896 (1. divisjon – Match 8)
There was more praise for super Svein when we trounced Tromsdalen at their place! He got off the mark after 17 minutes, brilliantly timing his run past the last defender to connect with Dariush’ direct ball upfield and slip it past keeper Marius Berntzen.
Tromsdalen only rarely threatened our goal in the first half. Manager Øyvind Leonhardsen had to do well to motivate his struggling team for the second, where they looked slightly more dangerous. Sadly for them, winger Mathias Dahl Abelsen was really struggling to get his shots on target.
Dahl Abelsen was in despair again on 87 minutes, when Zahid beat him to a throw from left-back Sander Floer Kulseng, thus setting the wheels in motion for our second goal. Adil quickly squared the ball to Moula, who then dribbled to the edge of the penalty area before teeing up a cool finish for Sandberg. Remarkably, that was Yannis’ fourth assist in three games!
Three minutes later, Melfjord put the seal on a 3-0 victory. Aalvik exchanged short passes with Zalo before punting the ball long to our striker, who beat defender Anders Karlsen before driving in his sixth goal of the season!
That’s six goals for Svein, and 6th place for Lyn as we finish this chapter in the play-off spots. The top teams are all struggling for consistency [except Fredrikstad, who’ve already had more draws than a chess grandmaster], so maybe we could keep rising up the table over the summer.
And after scoring five goals in his last three games, there was no doubt over who was the 1. divisjon Player of the Month for May…
Take a bow, Svein Melfjord! It may be a few years later than we were hoping for at Lyn, but Svein is finally emerging as a homegrown hero! Long may his blistering form continue!
That’s a pretty solid opening eight games, I must say (provided you just ignore the first three). Lyn have got their groove back, which bodes well for a future promotion challenge. I hope you’re already looking forward to the next few chapters of our Norwegian adventure!
“Takk for lesing!”
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