Lyn 1896 fans have been counting down the days until their team returns to the Eliteserien after a 14-year absence. That time has finally come for them and for Marit Enstad’s squad.
Pre-season has been a hectic one at Lyn. Having turned professional following promotion to Norway’s top flight, they’ve brought in nine new players, and at least one potential wonderkid has emerged from the Under-16s. If you’d like to know more, you can read Part 1 in the link attached.
Now let’s see if Lyn can prove their worth in the Eliteserien and begin strongly. If not, then it could be a very long 2024 season ahead…
SEASON EXPECTATIONS
Hei, det er Marit. It’s 10 March 2024 – the first Sunday of the new season – and it’s now sinking in that Lyn 1896 are an Eliteserien club once again.
This is our first season here since 2009, and the bookmakers think our stay will be short. They’ve made us 950-1 outsiders to become champions at the first attempt, and 2-5 odds-on favourites to go down. The other two promoted teams – Sogndal and Sarpsborg – are expected to stay clear of the automatic relegation places.
It’s easy to see why we’re expected to have a difficult campaign. Our ‘key player’ is apparently a 16-year-old midfielder, and although our annual wage bill has increased to €677,000, it’s still dwarfed by the other 15 teams. We are paupers amongst Norwegian princes.
It seems that the Lyn board share the bookies’ pessimism. Their minimum expectation for us this year is just to “battle bravely against relegation”. In other words, I probably won’t be sacked if we go straight back to the 1. divisjon, as long as we put up a fight.
Once again, the board’s Cupen expectations are for us to reach Round 3. We don’t have a great cup record, but the good news is that we will avoid other Eliteserien clubs for at least the first two rounds. A long run in this competition would definitely come in handy if we struggle in the league.
Our opening Eliteserien fixture is – fittingly – at home to Start. We could have had tougher openers for sure, especially as our first away game is at Molde – one of Norwegian football’s ‘Big Two’ alongside Rosenborg. Speaking of the defending champions, we will also play RBK early in the season.
LYN 1896 vs START (Eliteserien – Match 1)
That’s not a bad Start, is it? Our visitors finished 6th last season, but strong defensive performances from Ole Jørgen Falk Larsen and Andreas Uran kept them at bay and helped earn us a point.
Yet it could have been even better for us and the 1,000 or so home fans at the Bislett. Falk Larsen and winger Eirik Haugstad each had close-range efforts saved by Start keeper Kristoffer Klaesson in the first half.
Meanwhile, a promising strike from Kot Chol Tafesse just before half-time grazed the woodwork, which also denied Svein Melfjord and substitute winger Brage Karterud after the break. It was a frustrating afternoon for Tafesse, who missed the target with all four of his shots.
Teenage prodigies Max Oinas and Vladimir Mølsæter each got some gametime from the bench, with Vlad becoming Lyn’s youngest ever league debutant aged 16 years and 7 days. Unfortunately, they couldn’t inspire us to victory, though I was satisfied with a draw on our first game back in the Eliteserien since 2009.
Meanwhile, youth-team goalkeeper Eirik Sunde officially completed his season-long loan to our feeder team Lørenskog. He will play alongside our promising midfielder Reidar Huus at the 2. divisjon club.
MOLDE vs LYN 1896 (Eliteserien – Match 2)
Next up was an almighty challenge on live television at the Aker Stadium against Molde, who’d shared the last 10 Eliteserien titles with Rosenborg. I was expecting us to get spanked, but we battled all the way with the national giants and emerged with a point after a six-goal epic!
It was Molde who predictably drew first blood in the 24th minute, as a scrappy corner ended with Danish defender Kristian Riis bundling the ball over our goal line. Three minutes later, Riis fell back down to earth after being beaten to Thomas Zernichow‘s through-ball by a rapid Melfjord. Svein broke clear and slipped in the first goal of this landmark season for Lyn!
We then completed our first-half comeback just before the break. Melfjord’s 45th-minute free-kick was parried by goalkeeper Markus Pettersen, and Haugstad reacted quickly to drill in the rebound from the tight angle! As one of our longest-serving players, it was fitting that Eirik had put us 2-1 up on the pre-season title favourites.
Then, in the 63rd minute, came a costly mistake from Zernichow. After Lyn captain Benjamin Zalo intercepted a cross from MFK wing-back Andreas Vindheim, Thomas was beaten to the loose ball by midfield counterpart Emil Hansson. Hansson played the ball short to his fellow Norway senior international Tobias Svendsen, who curled a 25-yard banana shot in off the post to equalise.
The scoreline remained 2-2 going into the final quarter-hour, when I threw Tafesse on for Niklas Helgesen at left-wing. That substitution paid off four minutes from time, when the Kenyan collected a first-time cross from Haugstad and slipped a cool finish beyond Pettersen. It seemed we were on the verge of a famous victory…
…until Molde hit us on the counter two minutes later. Teenage winger Lars Andre Kvinnesland’s cross found another substitute in striker Runar Espejord, whose shot was blocked by Eivind Aalvik. Unfortunately, Svendsen was first to the rebound and secured his brace to make it 3-3.
MFK could then have stolen victory in stoppage time, but Aalvik recovered to deny Espejord from point-blank range. Eivind’s late heroics were crucial as we took a precious point off Ståle Solbakken’s side. After back-to-back draws, could we now build on that solid start and win at the third attempt.
LYN 1896 vs SARPSBORG (Eliteserien – Match 3)
Erm… no. Instead, we put on a weak display at home to fellow promotees Sarpsborg, who avenged our 2-0 victory at their place last year. It obviously didn’t help that Tafesse was away on Kenya international duty, scoring twice in Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against the mighty South Sudan and Cape Verde.
One of the main culprits for this defeat was debutant right-back Dejan Corovic, who didn’t look at all comfortable in the Eliteserien. In the 10th minute, Corovic and Zalo both failed to keep tabs on Sarpsborg’s attacking midfielder Tobias Heintz, who punished them with a simple tap-in from Morten Storaas’s right-wing cross.
Big Ben was a big letdown again 13 minutes later. Zalo pressed Adrian Benedyczak hard on the left wing, but the Polish target man escaped his slide tackle and waited for Heintz to make a run from the centre. After receiving a low centre from his team-mate, Heintz whipped in a 25-yard strike that Aalvik couldn’t quite reach.
The possession-based approach we’d used in the first half had not worked. We returned to a counter-attacking system for the restart, which at least stopped us leaking more goals. Sadly, our attackers rarely tested Særpingene at their end, and the Bastionen now had to wait until at least April to see a home goal.
Following the first three rounds, we were in 13th place with two points. The other winless teams were Kongsvinger and Haugesund (on one point each), and our local rivals Stabæk, who didn’t have any points or goals to their names after a miserable start.
ODD vs LYN 1896 (Eliteserien – Match 4)
We got our first Eliteserien victory at the fourth attempt, leaving it late to beat Odd at the Skagerak Arena. The hosts missed a number of scoring chances in a goalless first half, and we punished them 10 minutes after the break.
Appropriately, it was an Odd loanee who drew first blood for us against his parent club. Melfjord got between the centre-halves to latch onto Tafesse’s through-ball and unleash a fierce strike that goalkeeper Elias Haug was unable to quite keep out.
Barely half a minute later, though, the Oddrene were back on terms. Their midfielder Stian Solberg lobbed a pass over a hesitant Lyn defence to find his side’s big frontman Tobias Lauritsen, whose half-volley took away our lead immediately. It was a moment to forget for our debutant centre-half Robin Lorentzen, who was substituted about 15 minutes afterwards.
We started to build up momentum again late in the evening, particularly after an injury to right-winger Emad Markovic reduced our opponents to 10 men. Funnily enough, it was his Lyn counterpart who secured victory for us in stoppage time. Haugstad made himself an even bigger hero amongst the Bastionen by half-volleying in Melfjord’s cross to claim all three points!
Our first month back in the Eliteserien ended with us at the top of the bottom half – four points clear of automatic relegation. We appeared to be adapting reasonably well to top-flight football, which boded well for our next game at Strømsgodset.
Unfortunately, two first-teamers were struck down by injuries before we travelled to Drammen. Captain Zalo would miss that game – and at least the next two – after pulling his calf muscle in training. A few days later, 17-year-old backup keeper Kasper Morthen broke his hand, setting his development back by the best part of two months.
STRØMSGODSET vs LYN 1896 (Eliteserien – Match 5)
We really missed Zalo here. This was another six-goal thriller against former Eliteserien champions, which also ended with us again being denied victory in the closing stages.
Just like Molde before them, it was Godset who began the goal glut midway through the first half. Lorentzen intercepted a cross from their right-back Sander Kloster Joys, but he was far from joyful when the rebound was fired in by midfielder Peder Lysgård.
We drew level on 36 minutes, when Zernichow’s clever low through-ball was finished by Melfjord for his third goal in four games. Another Lyn attacker who’d quickly settled into the Eliteserien was Tafesse, who grabbed his second of the season just before half-time. Haugstad’s floated cross was poorly dealt with by defender Philip Aukland, and Kot Chol’s strike put us 2-1 up.
One minute into the second half, a surprise away win looked even more likely. Our new playmaker August Erlingmark crossed from the right wing to left-back – and stand-in captain – Uran, whose gorgeous first-timer from outside the penalty arc made it 3-1!
Then Strømsgodset started to fight back. A 57th-minute corner from Kloster Joys was nodded down by Espen Sveen to his fellow 21-year-old striker Yngve Helgesen, who vicious strike comfortably beat Aalvik. Yngve is actually an elder cousin of our own Niklas Helgesen, with the pair having come through Elverum’s youth set-up together.
Though Niklas came on for the final 15 minutes, it was his relative who had the bigger smile at full-time. In the first minute of stoppage time, Yngve headed in Eirik Ulland Andersen’s free-kick to get his second goal and secure a draw. It’d been another brave display against far better opposition, but we were again wondering how we hadn’t won.
LYN 1896 vs ROSENBORG (Eliteserien – Match 6)
This was another painful experience, as Rosenborg clinically picked us apart on their first visit to the Bislett. The reigning champions – now managed by Jörgen Lennartsson after title-winning coach Tor Ole Skullerud was poached by RB Leipzig – had far too much quality going forward for us to handle.
We surprisingly held on for 24 minutes, with Aalvik making a couple of excellent saves before RBK’s Polish forward Adrian Zagorski hit the post. It was his French strike partner Remy Renard who eventually broke through. Djordje Denic’s low cross into our box from the left wing was blocked by Uran, but our captain couldn’t quite keep the loose ball away from a hungry Renard.
Eight minutes later, midfielder Ove Hauge’s corner caused chaos in our penalty area, allowing RBK to go 2-0 up. Zagorski eventually got the ball in a difficult angle and cut it back to Denic, whose drive cannoned off the box. Unfortunately for us, the deflection took the ball to Zagorski, who made no mistake.
Zagorski and Renard were both 20 years old and frighteningly talented, but it was a 17-year-old who stole the show for Rosenborg late in the second half. France Under-19s striker Bocary Sangaré – who arrived from Sochaux in January – capped off a killer counter-attack by tapping Marius Lundemo’s through-ball into the net. 3-0, game over.
After that humbling, you might be surprised to read that we actually kept 64% of possession and completed 85% of our passes. We were just too wasteful in front of goal, which meant we completed a THIRD home match without scoring. If we didn’t stop the rot soon, we would be in for a very long season.
FLØY vs LYN 1896 (Cupen – Round 1)
Having won just one of our first five league games, the Cupen presented an opportunity to get our confidence back up. We were given a straightforward draw away to 3. divisjon side Flekkerøy – or Fløy, for short. Surely we would do to them what Rosenborg had just done to us?
And then some. As soon as Fløy gifted us a goal after just 45 seconds, they never stood a chance. Striker Mattias Cooper played a terrible back-pass in the hosts’ half that was intercepted by Oinas, who was then tackled by midfielder Sander Gurrik. That tackle diverted the ball to a clean-through Helgesen, who scored with ease.
Niklas set up our second goal in the 28th minute, when his selfless cut-back from the area was drilled home by Jesper Sandberg from the ‘D’. The box-to-box midfielder struck again four minutes later, firing teenage forward Tor Gulbrandsen‘s sidefooted pass away following a well-worked corner from Oinas.
Sandberg had the chance to complete his hat-trick from the penalty spot in the 37th minute, after right-winger Yannis Moula was pushed by Fløy forward Torbjørn Rosvoll. A confident and powerful spot-kick earned Jesper the match ball – and a well-deserved rest for the second half.
Despite continuing to dominate, we only added one more goal to our 4-0 half-time lead. Gulbrandsen took the credit on 74 minutes, heading in Corovic’s deep cross for his first competitive goal. It was also a memorable night for 23-year-old reserve goalkeeper Magnus Høyland, who kept a simple clean sheet on his long-awaited senior debut.
Another fourth-tier side awaited us at the end of the month, as we were paired at home with Sprint-Jeløy in Round 2. Before that, though, we had an opportunity to end our Bislett hoodoo – an opportunity I felt we HAD to take…
LYN 1896 vs BODØ/GLIMT (Eliteserien – Match 7)
…and we did, though it wasn’t easy against Bodø/Glimt. Both teams had their spells of dominance, and it all came down to us taking our chances when Glimt didn’t.
In the 35th minute, Aalvik made a confident catch to keep out a strike from visiting left-back Eirik Wollen Steen. Our keeper quickly rolled the ball out to Falk Larsen, who then found Tafesse near the halfway line. The Kenyan then played a killer pass through the defence to send Melfjord one-on-one with goalkeeper Ricardo Friedrich, whom he beat with ease.
We had to wait another 35 minutes to double our advantage. Tafesse was involved again, squaring the ball out wide to Uran, who capped off a ‘man of the match’ display with a brilliant cross that Haugstad volleyed home.
Friedrich kept out a couple of late efforts from Tafesse and Falk Larsen to keep our lead down to 2-0. At the other end, our defence shut Bodø/Glimt down superbly to record a first home win – and only a second clean sheet.
BRANN vs LYN 1896 (Eliteserien – Match 8)
Unfortunately, our fine away form ended in the following game. We were completely outplayed in Bergen by Brann, who finished 4th last year and were Eliteserien runners-up as recently as 2021.
Håkon Opdal’s side attacked us quickly, coming close to breaking the deadlock several times in the opening half-hour. They eventually succeeded in the 37th minute through midfielder Fredrik Haugen, who fired in a great strike from outside the area after a clever knock-down from forward Anders Aasenhus.
Aasenhus’ threat in the air posed us more problems three minutes into the second half. He got his head to an inswinging corner from winger Aron Dønnum, and the ball deflected into our net off an unlucky Lyn right-back in Markus Frydenlund. That second goal was the killer, as we never looked like fighting back, even after putting Mølsæter up front with Melfjord.
In the end, a 2-0 defeat really did flatter us. Brann could have had a third goal on 55 minutes, but Aasenhus was flagged offside after nodding in Aalvik’s spilt save from a powerful Haugen strike. Eivind was actually one of our best performers with a 6.9 rating, which went to show just how poor we were compared to the hosts.
The table wasn’t looking so pretty now. The big teams were already pulling clear, and we were looking nervously through the small gap between us and the bottom three.
We would pick up our league campaign again later… but before then, it was time to end April with what I hoped would be a straightforward Cupen win.
LYN 1896 vs SPRINT-JELØY (Cupen – Round 2)
Just looking at the stats and the final score, you’d think this 3-0 win over a team three divisions below us was a walkover. It was anything but, as a Lyn team consisting mostly of backup players frustrated the Bastionen for over an hour before finally putting Sprint-Jeløy in their place.
We missed so many scoring opportunities in the first half that I lost count in the end. The one time we put the ball into Sprint’s net was in the 18th minute, when Helgesen’s headed finish from Corovic’s cross was caught offside.
With the half-time score still at 0-0, I’ll admit that I lost my temper at my players in the dressing room. Once I calmed down, I instructed the team to play more direct, which eventually produced a reward in the 65th minute. 16-year-old playmaker Oinas got his maiden senior assist with a through-ball to Helgesen, who broke clear of the last defender and finished first-time.
Having broken Sprint-Jeløy’s resistance, we then secured victory with a couple more goals in stoppage time. Firstly, Falk Larsen got his first goal in a Lyn jersey by nodding in a Helgesen free-kick. That was followed by a first club assist for new Swedish winger Andreas Öhman, who continued his recovery from injury by setting up Gulbrandsen.
We’d made it through to Round 3 of the Cupen for only the second time in my six seasons as manager. But who would we play in the last 32?
Fredrikstad, who are 4th in the 1. divisjon and unbeaten in their last six matches. Bring them on.
All in all, I’d say that was a pretty good start to the campaign. Lyn have made strong progress in the Cupen, and they’ve not looked completely out of their depth in the Eliteserien (well… at least the attackers haven’t).
Is this just beginner’s luck, or do Lyn genuinely have what it takes to survive? I guess we’ll find out the answer in the next chapter…
“Takk for lesing!”
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