SOCCERWORLD CUP GROUP NINE:Norway 4 Scotland 0
IT WAS not the long ball of Egil Olsen that devastated Scotland in Oslo, but the long arm of the law. Two draconian yellow cards in two minutes for Gary Caldwell reduced George Burley’s team from comfort against Norway to 10 badly beaten men with their World Cup dreams on a precarious edge. The course of an entire campaign lurched towards the rocks inside 120 seconds.
The evening began with Norway needing to avoid defeat in order to keep South Africa in view. They ended it revitalised and with an exhibition that belied their manager’s reputation for route-one football. “I would have taken 1-0 before the game but 4-0 is special,” said Olsen. “It is us or Scotland for second place now.”
“A horrible night,” said Burley, who was forced to employ five different players in central defence, owing to the red card and subsequent injuries. His rearguard became ragged as a result.
The next dropped point from either team could decide who secures second place in the group behind Holland and given the shift in momentum here, and the remaining fixtures, it is likely to be those wearing Viking helmets and not kilts who make the play-offs.
Scotland began patiently and but for a wild miss from John Arne Riise they had been untroubled while causing the Norwegians problems from two corners. Darren Fletcher ought to have scored from the first. Then Caldwell tackled Morten Gamst Pedersen from behind in the 32nd minute, taking the ball and catching the man on the follow-through. Yellow card. Two minutes later he was gone, having pulled the shirt of John Carew to prompt a second booking from the referee, Alain Hamer, who initially seemed unaware Caldwell was on a yellow. “It was very harsh and if the referee had realised Gary had been booked he wouldn’t have sent him off,” Burley said.
Though Caldwell should have trodden more carefully with Carew, it was the official who showed a lack of common sense. “Hamer by name, homer by nature,” screamed the Scottish support, and their misfortune doubled when Riise’s subsequent free-kick deflected off Scott Brown and beyond the reach of David Marshall. Olsen said: “I wasn’t happy playing against 10 men at nil-nil but when the free-kick went in it changed everything. It gave us a huge advantage and the match was decided before half-time.”
Scotland’s task may have been arduous but their response was calamitous. Riise helped secure the points on the stroke of half-time with a glorious pass that resulted in his brother, Fulham’s Bjorn Helge Riise, setting up Pedersen for a second. Game over.
Carew created the third goal when he shrugged aside Alan Hutton and struck a shot against both posts. Erik Huseklepp converted the rebound. The centre-forward then had a legitimate goal disallowed when he poked Pedersen’s cross a yard over the line, via the bar, only for the assistant referee to rule otherwise. The Blackburn midfielder completed the rout with a 90th-minute free-kick.
Having lost Caldwell junior, Burley then saw Caldwell senior, Steven, suffer a groin strain and a third centre-half, the substitute Christophe Berra, suffer a hamstring injury. “It is a devastating result to concede four when we came here looking to cement our position in second, but it is still in our own hands,” Burley said.
Guardian Service
NORWAY:Knudsen, Hogli, Waehler, Hangeland, John Arne Riise, Bjorn Helge Riise (Skjelbred 84), Grindheim, Pedersen, Hoseth, Carew (Helstad 84), Huseklepp (Iversen 76). Subs not used: Jarstein, Reginiussen, Winsnes, Brenne. Booked: Carew, Hoseth, John Arne Riise.
SCOTLAND:Marshall, Hutton, Davidson, Steven Caldwell (McFadden 48), Gary Caldwell, Graham Alexander, Darren Fletcher, Commons, Brown, Miller, McCormack (Berra 37), Berra (Whittaker 78). Subs not used: Neil Alexander, Hartley, Maloney, Steven Fletcher. Booked: Gary Caldwell, Steven Caldwell.
Referee:Alain Hamar (Luxembourg).
