Marradona Gunner Halle still playing

[B_i_N]

Since I can't watch City I'm off to see Marradona play against Gunner Halle in a 6 a side exhibition show on Friday of Norwegian and Argie has-beens here in Oslo. Apparantly the little cheat likes Norwegian female journalists. He's not the only one. Not sure how many people will be there, last I heard they'd only sold about 1500 of the 6000 tickets. He's promsing a great show with lots of skills.
Since I never saw him when he was in his prime, I thought I wouldn't let this opportunity pass by.

http://gfx.dagbladet.no/pub/artikkel/4/47/476/476087/md4_1157634934.jpg

The teams are as follows

Norway: Frode Grodås, Frode Olsen, Lars Bohinen, Kjetil Rekdal, GUNNAR HALLE, Egil Østenstad, Totto Dahlum, Stig Inge Bjørnebye, Tore Pedersen, Erik Mykland, Bent Skammelsrud, Henning Berg.
Trainer: Egil Drillo Olsen

Argentina:
Diego Armando Maradona, Gabriel Buono, Alejandro Mancuso, Matias Almeyda, Javier Mac Allister, Fernando Gamboa, Gabriel Omar Amato, Sergio Zarate, Juan Jose Borelli, Sebastian Rambert, Patricio Camps, Diego Sonora, Claudio Caniggia, Sergio Goicochea.
Trainer: Terje Liverød.

[Jantje]

[QUOTE=B_i_N;97531]
Since I never saw him when he was in his prime, I thought I wouldn't let this opportunity pass by.

I presume your on about super Gunnar here!!!

BTW , do you know anything about what Ole Bjorn Sundgot is up to these days, i met him at a VP fans forum, a nice guy, very open with the fanstup:

[B_i_N]

[QUOTE=B_i_N;97531]
Since I never saw him when he was in his prime, I thought I wouldn't let this opportunity pass by.

I presume your on about super Gunnar here!!!

BTW , do you know anything about what Ole Bjorn Sundgot is up to these days, i met him at a VP fans forum, a nice guy, very open with the fanstup:

I don't know what he is doing right now, but two seasons ago he was playing for Henning Berg's Oslo Lyn who were the losing team in the Norwegian cup final. He certainly banged them in for Lyn. After he left City he went back to Molde and made a brief appearance for them in the Champions League. God knows how Molde managed to qualify for the group stages. His cousin is a top scorer for one of the top teams in Norway, Lillestrøm where Halle is the assistant manager.

You did ask :D

[Jantje]

Did Gunnar give the little Argie a kicking then BiN

[B_i_N]

Did Gunnar give the little Argie a kicking then BiN

He gave a penalty away. I'm writing a report about it and I'll post it tomorrow. You've been warned :D

[B_i_N]

http://gfx.dagbladet.no/pub/artikkel/4/47/476/476225/maradona7_1157748665.jpg

Showball is a 6 a side game of football consisting of two halves of 30 minutes with a 15 minute break. There are 10 players in each team and players can come on and off whenever they want, just like ice-hockey. If a player gets a red card they are sent off for two minutes. If a defending player kicks the ball over the plexi-glass screen in his own half then a penalty is awarded to the attacking team. The pitch is about 42 meters long and 22 meters wide. Each team can call a time out of about 3 minutes during each half.

In the Argentinean team only Maradona played in the 86 world cup finals, their team also included the internationals Claudio Paul Caniggia, Matias Jesus Almeyda and goalkeeper Sergio, Goycoechea.
The Norwegian team consisted of some well known faces in English football, Henning Berg, the former Blackburn and Man Utd player, Frode Grodås the keeper who won an FA Cup final medal with Chelsea, Lars Bohinen who played for Forest, Blackburn and Derby, Stig Inge Bjørnebye who won a league cup winners medal for Liverpool in 95 and of course non other than the old fighter himself ex Bantam Gunnar Halle. The team also included two Norwegian legends, who unfortunately or fortunately, never played in England. Erik (the mosquito) Mykland, the bad boy of Norwegian football, a great player who should have achieved a great deal more. And Kjetil Rekdal the former manager of Oslo club and current league champions Vålerenga, who quit last month, and whose goal at Wembley against England played a significant part in knocking England out of the 94 World Cup finals. Not only that this guy is a die hard L**ds fan, an active member of their Norwegian supporters club, who admitted in an interview that were he ever to be given the job as either the Liverpool or Man Utd manager, his first duty as a L**ds fan would sell all the best players so that the team would be relegated. What a guy? The Norwegian manager was the former national team and Wimbledon manager Egil Olsen.

Now even though the crowd was small, I just could not get over how most of those there adored this man who cheated in the hand of god goal to knock England out, who was caught red handed cheating in a drugs test, and who swore on his baby daughter’s head that he did not take drugs.
As the teams were announced I had to sit through a long introduction about what a great player this man was, and what a miracle goal it was against England from some young Norwegian who quite honestly I wanted to hit.

The teams came out, Maradona of course coming out last, the small crowd gave him a rapturous welcome, I sat there with my hands firmly placed at my side, and the game kicked off.
Showball is fast, non of the midfield stuff, it’s non stop end to end and it didn’t take long before Almeyda was through and scored a quick goal. Then after a fast Norwegian attack the man who everybody came to see, the moment everybody had waited for was through and Maradona scored the second goal. Then the moment I had waited for, a Norwegian defender kicked the ball out over the plex-glass wall, a penalty to Argentina, Maradona picked the ball up, placed it on the spot, then ran up to take it, kicking the ball straight into the goalkeeper’s arms. That moment was worth the 45 quid alone. But back to the game, I have to say, even though this was a show game, the players, especially the Norwegians, were up for it. The commitment was there, and so was the enjoyment. You could see by the play that they were all taking this very seriously, but they were also having a good time. Just before half-time Rekdal put the ball in the net to make it 5-5.
The second half and I have to admit Maradona scored a beautiful goal from about 20 yards out to make it 6-5. I’ll give credit where it is due, I honestly though he would be making just a cameo appearance, considering the health problems he has had, but for most of the match, he was on the pitch playing his little heart out, giving everything, even in front of such a small crowd. Norway then equalized and then Rekdal put them in front. Was this going to be a dream night for me, being witness to an Argie and Maradona defeat? Nope guess who kicked the ball out while defending? That’s right Gunnar Halle. Penalty to the Argies, which the little guy didn’t take, Gamboa made it 7-7. That was it for Norway, Argentina scored 3 more with Rekdal pulling one back in the final minute to make the final score 10-8. Maradona had scored 2 goals and assisted in another 3. The Norwegian manager had to admit that Maradona had played a lot better than he had expected, than we all expected. As he threw his socks and shorts to the cheering crowd, the teams left the arena, leaving the arrangers with a massive bill and a possible 10 thousand pound fine for allowing the Argentinean team to play with poker advertisements on their shirts, which like most things in Norway, is illegal.
Because I’d sneaked into the most expensive seats about 90 quid, I’d also been given a ticket to a nightclub to meet some of the players at the official after game party, but I went home instead to watch the first episode of the new Sopranos series.
Was it worth it, am I glad I went? Yes I am, this was a once a in a lifetime chance to witness something like this. It was great to see some of the old Norwegian players again, especially Halle, because of his association with Bradford City, who on the whole I thought had a very good game, shame about the penalty though, and when he did go on the attack he couldn’t even hit one of the large video screens.

Photos from the game, click on the actual picture to see the next one.

http://www.dagbladet.no/sport/2006/09/08/476225.html?i=1