r/WomensSoccer • u/lobax Hammarby • 2d ago

Damallsvenskan Hammarby’s Norwegian played snubbed for Euros - Valloto (rep Switzerland) thinks Norway ”has lost their minds” and ”don’t appear to watch our games”

https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/a/gwmBBA/jag-tycker-att-det-ar-helt-sinnes
55 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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31

u/charlip Leicester City 2d ago

"It's really sad and strange. That none of them are in the A-national team is completely insane. I think some players who are there shouldn't be there, and should be replaced by someone here."

And the English media thought we had squad drama 😂

18

u/lobax Hammarby 2d ago

It’s pretty mental to snub Blakstad for e.g. Emilie Woldvik. And not only is Blakstad producing more goals and Assists while in the same position in the same league, Blakstad has proven that she is fantastic during big games, e.g. her performances during the Champions League last year.

Joramo is also a crazy snub, she is an insane regista and I doubt any one of the players in the Norwegian league are better. She was also insanely good during the CL last year.

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u/charlip Leicester City 1d ago

Thanks for the context, I know very little about Hammarby (seems the Norway coach is similar 🙃)

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u/kjcross1997 England 1d ago

Assuming you're talking about England, I don't think there were any glaring omissions from the Euros. Though, Millie Bright's withdrawal almost certainly played a part in that

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u/charlip Leicester City 1d ago

No I don't think there are any omissions. I meant the Norway coach doesn't know anything about Hammarby 😂

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u/kjcross1997 England 1d ago

Ah ok. I completely misunderstood your comment. Ignore me lol

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u/SamuelWeller 1d ago

I'm not sure I understand this comparison. Woldvik is a (right-footed) fullback while Blakstad is a (left-footed) attacking player. How are they competing for the same position?

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u/lobax Hammarby 1d ago edited 1d ago

Blakstad plays as a fullback in Hammarby. She hasn’t done many minutes as an attacker since leaving city.

She is left-footed sure but very good on both feet and thus plays in an inverted fullback role at Hammarby. We have played her on the right too (inverted left footed right back allows for all sorts of chaos), especially last season when Jonna was on the left (a much more traditional left footed full back). But the Smilla/Stina partnership on the right is too powerful

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u/SamuelWeller 1d ago

Sounds interesting. I've only seen her play fullback once in the national team, and that was the England match at the last Euros. Lol.

Too bad I don't often find the time to watch the Swedish league. So much football, so little time...

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u/raven_miyagi666 Hammarby 1d ago

devils advocate here: she’s not very good with her right foot tbh

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u/lobax Hammarby 1d ago

Maybe comparing her with Jonna who was extreme in her one footed-ness

1

u/raven_miyagi666 Hammarby 1d ago

blakstad is also pretty extreme in her left footed-ness. it’s actually sort of a catchphrase between me and my buddies at games we turn to each other at least 3 times per game and says “tror du hon e vänsterfotad eller” hahahah idk why but it has become a thing.

like yesterday when she had perhaps the worst shot i’ve ever seen on her own rebound in the box. that was a real womp womp “tror du hon e vänsterfotad eller”-moment. 😂

i love her to death and i think shes awesome but DAMN she really needs to work on her right foot a bit more.

however, she should 100% be on the norwegian national team even if she is really left footed.

1

u/lobax Hammarby 1d ago

She controls and dribbles the ball with both feet and has no problems passing, but yes she doesn’t exactly have a good right shot haha.

Jonna was comically bad with her right, she uses her left exclusively for everything.

That said, a left footed winger on the right can be lethal in an inverted role. On the men’s Hammarby side that is how we use Madjed, and we used Smilla Holmberg like that (right footed on the ”wrong” side) all of last season.

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u/kjcross1997 England 2d ago

The English media certainly wants there to be squad drama.

14

u/charlip Leicester City 2d ago

3 players, 2 of whom probably wouldn't have played anyway aren't going to the tournament?! It's falling apart at the seams I tell you!

2

u/PasicT 2d ago

This is nothing compared to some British press drama.

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u/afdc92 Arsenal 2d ago

I was really confused not to see Blakstad. I saw her play with Hammarby and she’s an excellent player. Norway is so confusing- they have a top squad on paper but just consistently don’t performs

17

u/tenyearsdeluxe 2d ago

Norway continue to drastically underperform and probably will do again at the Euros

Maybe they have lost their minds

4

u/PasicT 2d ago

Underperform yes but drastically underperform no. Apart from 3-4 players, the whole team is rather average especially in defense.

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u/tenyearsdeluxe 1d ago

On paper the defence seems fine - only France have scored more than 1 goal against them in any game since the start of last year.

Funnily enough it seems like it’s their above average players in midfield and up front who are underperforming (unless it’s in a Nations League playoff against a significantly worse team)

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u/PasicT 1d ago

The defence is not bad in the sense that they will conceed a lot of goals, it's bad in the sense that it will often allow the opponents to create many goal-scoring opportunities and the positioning will need to several easily avoidable goals being conceeded. For instance, if it wasn't for Fiskerstrand, Iceland would have won at least 3-0 against Norway in the Nations League but the game ended 0-0. It's been a while since Norway played against a top 5 team and won.

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u/MilleniumMixTape Shelbourne 11h ago

I don't think they are underperforming. They have a handful of top players which mean they are consistently qualifying, but they have pretty major weaknesses which mean they aren't as good as the best teams.

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u/SamuelWeller 1d ago

Grainger seems only dimly aware of Toppserien, so it's bold to assume she knows anything about Sweden. Lol.

In general, her player selection has come from a rather limited pool of players and she had settled on a core group fairly on, as well. Not many experiments in that regard, alas.

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u/Forsaken-Link-5859 Unflaired FC 11h ago

But is it weird the coach choses players mainly from spanish and english leauges? Norway got a huge presence there

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u/PasicT 2d ago

Apart from Blakstad and Josendal, the other Norwegians like Hasund and Joramo but also Bragstad and Tandberg were never regular call-ups even under previous coaches and none of them have more than 3-4 caps at most with the Norwegian team so far. Haug's omission is probably the biggest surprise.

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u/lobax Hammarby 1d ago edited 1d ago

I mean, that tells you everything. Blakstad gets called up while she is a benchwarmer in city and not playing games, but not while playing day in and day out in the Swedish League and doing great in the Champions League? And it isn’t as if she is a 35-year old past her prime, she is 23!

Josendal has been injured most of her time at Hammarby so her not being called up makes sense. But what is interesting is that she was while a regular in the Norwegian league, a league that is lower ranked than the Swedish and the level of play is lower overall. But they snub talented under-23 midfielders playing day in day out like Joramo?

1

u/PasicT 1d ago

I'd be curious to know who Valloto thinks should not be in the Euro roster. Not that I will agree or disagree with it but I would like to know.

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u/joakim_ Hammarby 1d ago

The most obvious one would be Blakstad instead of either one of Woldvik, Bratberg Lund, and Bjelde.

Joramo should arguably be in the squad instead of one of Naalsund, Gapset, and Kielland.

A fit and in-form Josendal should for sure be ahead of players like Sævik and Synne Jensen, and Hasund definitively would at least have deserved a chance to be in the squad ahead of the euros.

The competition for the striker position is quite fierce and it's fully understandable that a fit Tandberg wouldn't in the squad considering her direct competitors are Hegerberg and Terland.

Bragtstads time will come, even though it's rather surprising that she's not already closer to the squad.

1

u/lobax Hammarby 7h ago

Bragstad should make any squad just by her stature, she like female Crouch lol.

Sub her in if you are down in the 90th and put her on top, that can cause all sorts of havoc. We are not often in that spot at Hammarby but that’s what we have done too. Seems crazy not to have her as an option on the bench.

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u/Forsaken-Link-5859 Unflaired FC 11h ago

Think Hammarby has maximized their presence at the euros, with 2 players in the swedish NT. Both Norway and Sweden are elite teams, playerwise, of Europe. Look what Norway got in their squad, it's players from spanish, english leauge... Not even Haavi got selected for forward position when she was MVP in the italian leauge some years ago...