For Our International Fans

[alltidblaa]

This topic is for everyone, but all posts must be written in English.

Today Stabæk announced that our new head coach is named Bob Bradley, and along comes massive and greatly appreciated attention from the other side of borders, oceans and mountains. We've had visitors on our discussion board from all over the globe these last two days. Many Americans, of course, are interested in learning more about our club.

Hence we've made this topic, so that all our new international friends can get their answers, straight from the source. Feel free to ask about our team, about our history, about our supporter club. Anything, really.

 

If any supporter from the U.S. or Spain or France or Egypt or whatnot wants to visit Norway and Nadderud for a game this season, we'll gladly be of assistance.

 

We'll be happy to have you.

And if you want to become a member of our awesome supporter club, we can help you with that as well. It costs NOK 200 for adults - that's only like 33 bucks for a whole year.

 

Oh, and we'll send you your very own, beautifully designed membership card. The same one Bob Bradley holds up in the picture below. The one with the flag.

"Vi er tilbake" translates to "We are back".

 

 

Welcome to all international fans of Stabæk!


The how-to

It's pretty easy to take part in the discussion here on this board. First, you might want to set the board language to English - if not already done by your browser settings. It could help you navigate.

You can set the language at the bottom of the board. Click Norsk (Bokmål) and then select English (USA)



Now, you need an account to submit posts. On the top of the page you'll find a gray button:



Click it! Now comes an easy part and a hard part. The easy part is filling out the fields with English descriptions. The hard part might be these two fields:



"Klubben i mitt hjerte" translates to "The club in my heart". You should write Stabæk here. Or Stabaek. It just can't be empty.

"Er du en spam-robot?" translates to "Are you a spam robot?". You should write "Nei" here. That means no in Norwegian. You can also write "Nope".

 

When you then click Create Account you will have created an account. Well done!

To write a post you simply write in the text field on the bottom of this topic thread and click Post.

The who's-who

This discussion board is owned and run by Stabæk Support, the supporter club of Stabæk. Here is some contact information:

Henrik Harboe, Chairman
henrik@stabaek.no

Trond Hansen, responsible for new members
medlem@stabaek.no

Bjørnar Posse Sandboe, responsible for the web site
posse@stabaek.no

If you need to contact somebody in Stabæk, you'll find contact information here.

The two most important are these:

Lars Hjorth, Managing Director
lars.hjorth@stabak.no / +47 415 59 180

Inge André Olsen, Head of sports division
inge.andre.olsen@stabak.no / +47 930 34 047

 

The YouTube

 

There is a lot of Stabæk video clips out there on the web, and here's some of the best:

 

Bob Bradley talks about Stabæk:

 

A presentation of Stabæk's future (with English subtitles):

 

All the goals last season:

http://www.budstikka.no/video?videoId=48D20C5C

 

The fans celebrate after our last game last year:

http://www.budstikka.no/video?videoId=E6DFC8E5

 

Enjoy!

Endret 3. Januar 2014 av Potter

[ingo]

Great stuff. Especially the NOPE!

[Stuart]

Great initiative.

 

I'm not seeing any English subtitles on Ingo's movie though.

[alltidblaa]

I'm not seeing any English subtitles on Ingo's movie though.

 

You might have to press a button:

 

[Jan Fredrik]

Perfectly done, alltidblaa!

 

I hope this information can be useful for our international friends.

Endret 3. Januar 2014 av Jan Fredrik

[Stuart]

 

I'm not seeing any English subtitles on Ingo's movie though.

 

You might have to press a button:

 

 

Yeah, I tried that but I'm still not seeing them for some reason. It's no problem for me as I understand Norwegian so it's fine as long as it's working for everyone else. (Great movie, by the way). :-)

Endret 3. Januar 2014 av Stuart

[kkh94]

This...this is amazing.

[Kittil]

 

 

I'm not seeing any English subtitles on Ingo's movie though.

 

You might have to press a button:

 

 

Yeah, I tried that but I'm still not seeing them for some reason. It's no problem for me as I understand Norwegian so it's fine as long as it's working for everyone else. (Great movie, by the way). :-)

 

 

Embedded youtube videos sometimes dont work properly, I got the subtitles to work by pressing the subtitles button, and then selecting English.

 

And may I also suggest that this thread is pinned on the forum, so the thread doesn't disappear for our international fans

[Perfect 7]

Make something for our international sponsors as well; I want to see Mr. Cash and his associate Mr. Hope sign up.

[Daigo nr 10]

Great Welcome guys!

[clevelandmo]

Thank you for inviting posts from abroad and for setting up this thread for those of us who dont speak Norwegian! Best of luck to Bob in this new position. Stabaek is not only getting an accomplished manager, but a top class person. He will give the club everything he can.

 

I'm a big fan of a couple of Norwegian players - Erik Nevland and Brede Hangeland - but I know they didn't play at Stabaek. Who are some of the best players to play for Stabaek?

 

I dont know much about the quality of the Tippeligaen. Where would you rank it in terms of quality compared to the English championship and League One?

 

In terms of the current team, are there any positions where they are weak and need to bring in new players?

[@ringo]

Hi, and a warm welcome to the Stabæk family

 

Brian Deane - coach for Sarpsborg 08 (another tippeligaen team) recently compared the quality somwhere between the bottom of the championship and top of leauge one. He should know, and I think he is quite spot on.

 

Stabæk has lost some players since the surprice promotion last year, so the squad is quite small. We've got a talentet goalkeeper, 3 reliable defenders, some good wingers and have recently brought in a promising playmaker up front. But we are lacking players in central midfield and a prolific goalscorer. Also we conceded an average of 1,5 goals per game last season so we should perhaps do some more in defence? But this could perhaps be remedied by bringing in a strong defensive midfielder.

 

In adition we have a lot of promising talents coming up from our youth academy. Some had their breakthrough last year, but Tippeligaen is a different ballgame and we can not depend on all these youngsters. We need to bring in some more experienced players to give the talent some time and help to evolve.

 

@ringo

Endret 3. Januar 2014 av @ringo

[Mattis]

Welcome

[Solobrus]

Former American players in Stabæk:

 

* Mikkel "Mix" Diskerud

* Sean Cunningham

* Ricardo Clark

[Perfect 7]

One of my personal favorites that we've ever had in our club was someone you might know: Daigo Kobayashi. He was only here for one season and didn't really get too much attention from anyone outside of Stabæk but he was magnificent nonetheless.

 

The greatest player and personality in the club history is inarguably Daniel Nannskog (Swedish-American). He's more of a club legend than an internationally recognizable player though.

 

Some of the best players that later moved on to bigger clubs include names like:

 

Somen Tchoyi (Cameroon; Red Bull Salzburg, West Bromwich, Augsburg)

Anthony Annan (Ghana; Schalke, Vitesse, Osasuna)

Christian Wilhelmsson (Sweden; Anderlecht, Roma, Nantes, Bolton, Deportivo La Coruña, LA Galaxy)

Tobias Linderoth (Sweden; Everton, Galatasaray)

Tommy Svindal Larsen (Norway; Nürnberg)

Frode Olsen (Norway; Sevilla)

Martin Andresen (Norway; Wimbledon, Blacburn)

Vegar Eggen Hedenstad (Norway; Freiburg)

Thomas Rogne (Norway; Celtic, Wigan)

 

It's difficult to compare the quality of one league to another when they never compete against eachother but I think it's not very wrong to say Tippeligaen is close to MLS in quality, probably slightly weaker. I think MLS likely has more players who would dominate in Tippeligaen than vice versa.

Endret 3. Januar 2014 av Perfect 7

[Stuart]

Hi clevelandmo.

A bit of Stabæk history for you.

 

As you may be aware, Stabæk won the Norwegian league a few years back in 2008. In that season we were privileged to have some of the best players that have ever graced a Norwegian football field at the club.

 

Here's a YouTube cavalcade of some of the goals we scored that year. The quality of some of the video is a bit dodgy, but the quality of the football certainly isn't.

 

Keep an eye out especially for player number 25 Alanzinho, and number 11 Daniel Nannskog. In my opinion, Nannskog is the best striker this country has ever seen.

 

Enjoy.

[Hanse]

Former American players in Stabæk:

 

* Mikkel "Mix" Diskerud

* Sean Cunningham

* Ricardo Clark

 

Also Chris Henderson were in Stabæk for some months, but didn't play any official games

[clevelandmo]

Thanks for the welcomes and info. I'm certainly looking forward to the start of the season and getting to know the team. I didnt realize that Ricardo Clark played for Stabaek. You probably know that Bob Bradley was widely criticized by US fans for his preference for Clark, particularly in our 2010 World Cup loss to Ghana. It was, in my opinion, an unfounded criticism based mostly on hindsight, but then again I am a fan of Bradley.

[han derre derre]

Thanks for the welcomes and info. I'm certainly looking forward to the start of the season and getting to know the team. I didnt realize that Ricardo Clark played for Stabaek. You probably know that Bob Bradley was widely criticized by US fans for his preference for Clark, particularly in our 2010 World Cup loss to Ghana. It was, in my opinion, an unfounded criticism based mostly on hindsight, but then again I am a fan of Bradley.

I didn't know he got criticism for preferring Clark. But if Clark played as badly in that game as he did under his period here, I understand where the criticism comes from.

[@ringo]

Hepp,

 

Still - Clark was by far our best player for the short period he was here, getting a lot of appraisal from the coaching staff. However, the team as a whole was not doing to great. To put it mildly...

 

@ringo

[clevelandmo]

 

Thanks for the welcomes and info. I'm certainly looking forward to the start of the season and getting to know the team. I didnt realize that Ricardo Clark played for Stabaek. You probably know that Bob Bradley was widely criticized by US fans for his preference for Clark, particularly in our 2010 World Cup loss to Ghana. It was, in my opinion, an unfounded criticism based mostly on hindsight, but then again I am a fan of Bradley.

I didn't know he got criticism for preferring Clark. But if Clark played as badly in that game as he did under his period here, I understand where the criticism comes from.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the welcomes and info. I'm certainly looking forward to the start of the season and getting to know the team. I didnt realize that Ricardo Clark played for Stabaek. You probably know that Bob Bradley was widely criticized by US fans for his preference for Clark, particularly in our 2010 World Cup loss to Ghana. It was, in my opinion, an unfounded criticism based mostly on hindsight, but then again I am a fan of Bradley.

I didn't know he got criticism for preferring Clark. But if Clark played as badly in that game as he did under his period here, I understand where the criticism comes from.

 

early in the match, clark gave away the ball and it resulted in a goal by Boateng. He then received a yellow card and Bradley had to sub him out in the first half. It was a costly early sub since the game went into overtime. It's easy to look at that and criticize but then Clark had a very good game against England in the group stage. His defending was instrumental in holding them to draw.

[Perfect 7]

 

clark gave away the ball (...) received a yellow card

 

This pretty much sums up his brief spell with us. He was terrible but so was the rest of the team that year. I'm sure he's a much better player than the impression he made here. His career proves that he was. I was surprised by how technically unskilled he was though.

[clevelandmo]

 

 

clark gave away the ball (...) received a yellow card

 

This pretty much sums up his brief spell with us. He was terrible but so was the rest of the team that year. I'm sure he's a much better player than the impression he made here. His career proves that he was. I was surprised by how technically unskilled he was though.

 

"technically unskilled" is a common comment about American players. Bradley liked Clark for his defensive abilities, mostly tackling, which is why he started him against an athletic team like Ghana. At least that is what he said when asked to explain his decision to start Clark.

 

Did any bigger leagues ever show an interest in Daniel Nannskog?

 

Also, I really like Mix Diskerud as a player, and I see he came through Stabæk's (just learned how to do the æ) youth system. That bodes well for your youth set-up in my opinion but then I am no expert. Why did he leave? Mix apparently almost went to the Portland Timbers - they are my favorite MLS team. Would people want him back at Stabæk if Bradley could get him? I believe Bradley gave him his first cap for the USA.

[kuk]

Why did he leave? Mix apparently almost went to the Portland Timbers - they are my favorite MLS team. Would people want him back at Stabæk if Bradley could get him? I believe Bradley gave him his first cap for the USA.

 

 

Hi Clevelandmo!

Mix is out, and will NEVER return.

[Bebe]

 

Why did he leave? Mix apparently almost went to the Portland Timbers - they are my favorite MLS team. Would people want him back at Stabæk if Bradley could get him? I believe Bradley gave him his first cap for the USA.

 

Hi Clevelandmo!

Mix is out, and will NEVER return.

Kuk: that seems to be your PERSONAL opinion. I have never heard any Stabæk official ever express such a thing.

[kuk]

 

 

Why did he leave? Mix apparently almost went to the Portland Timbers - they are my favorite MLS team. Would people want him back at Stabæk if Bradley could get him? I believe Bradley gave him his first cap for the USA.

Hi Clevelandmo!

Mix is out, and will NEVER return.

Kuk: that seems to be your PERSONAL opinion. I have never heard any Stabæk official ever express such a thing.

 

Bebe: Thats correct.

[Norris]

Mix stabbed us in the back, at this moment I see him as a little rat. So it will be really awkward if he ever returns, but I guess we'll get over it at some point.

[@ringo]

However, Kuk - you're not alone.

 

Personally I'm no fan of Diskerud as I find him a bit too egocentrical for my taste. He does his best to appear the oposite though, but actions speaks louder than words.

 

However, that is not the main reason for why I would not welcome him back to the bluestriped shirt. As mentioned above, we first and formost need a defensiv midfielder. Diskerud is an attacking midfielder at hart. I also believe he is to young and inexperienced, lacking the necessary leadership qualities that out team needs now. We have plenty of good offensive midfielders in the squad already, and our limited budget would be much better spendt on other players.

 

So in my mind it would be a mistake to bring in Diskerud, and I would regard it as a really poor start for Bradley at Stabæk.

 

@ringo

Endret 4. Januar 2014 av @ringo

[Luguber]

 

 

Why did he leave? Mix apparently almost went to the Portland Timbers - they are my favorite MLS team. Would people want him back at Stabæk if Bradley could get him? I believe Bradley gave him his first cap for the USA.

 

Hi Clevelandmo!

Mix is out, and will NEVER return.

Kuk: that seems to be your PERSONAL opinion. I have never heard any Stabæk official ever express such a thing.

how proficient are you in norwegian?

[Perfect 7]

Would people want him (Diskerud) back at Stabæk if Bradley could get him? I believe Bradley gave him his first cap for the USA.

 

I have only one problem with Diskerud: We can't afford him. The big question is whether the club leaders realise this or start wasting more money than we can afford again. I know they want him, but I hope they have finally learned from past mistakes. I think I see some alarming signs that Bob Bradley is a new Telenor Arena to the club leadership though; this one big thing that will magically solve every problem we have.

 

The Diskerud story is a bit long and complicated. The short version is that he was one of the most popular players when he was here but many fans were let down by him in the end, after all he did and the way he left. Above all Diskerud - and, importantly: his father - are very good at cynical self-promotion disguised as something else, something more sympethetic and charming. Personally I don't hold a grudge because I sort of had him figured out from the start and was never his biggest fan in the first place. I believe there is room for personalities like him but he would probably benefit in the long term if he was a bit more sincere about actions - less flash, more substance.

 

He is a really good player, no doubt. Just not what we need right now, and not in our price range.