Just when you think you’ve seen and heard everything in soccer, Bodö striker Kasper Högh had four goals disallowed in the space of 37 minutes on Saturday. And yet he was still the match winner.
While many European teams are slowly preparing for the new season, the season in Norway is in full swing. On Saturday evening, champions FK Bodö/Glimt had an important home game against Sandefjord Fotball ahead of them. For striker Högh in particular, the seventh home game of the season turned into an emotional rollercoaster.
Bodö dominated the game from the start and had a clinical finisher in Högh. The 24-year-old scored four (!) goals in the first half alone. The catch: not a single one counted. The VAR intervened three times, and the referees made one decision on the pitch. Högh was offside for his first two goals (12th and 15th minutes), before the third goal was disallowed because former Frankfurt player Jens-Petter Hauge was in the forbidden zone (37th minute). Seconds before half-time, Högh celebrated a fourth goal in vain, but once again he was offside.
“It was just weird,” Högh admitted to TV2 after the final whistle: “I was frustrated after the first two goals, but I had to pull myself together.” The coach and his teammates obviously found the right words at half-time. Because after the break, Högh delivered again – and this time completely legitimately. He set up the opening goal by Ole Didrik Blomberg (59th minute) and less than ten minutes later was able to add his own name to the scoresheet. Högh scored the second goal, which was also the final score, from the penalty spot. “Fortunately, there’s no offside on a penalty,” he explained with a smile afterwards.
Blomberg recommends an “offside course”
Leading scorer Blomberg took it in stride, advising his teammate and the entire offense to take an “offside course” on NRK radio. Coach Kjetil Knutsen had “no problem” with the performance and ultimately saw five goals from his striker: “He put the ball between the posts, that was good training.”
With two games in hand on the leading duo Viking Stavanger (33 points) and Brann Bergen (27), the champions are ten and four points behind respectively. This makes Høgh’s accuracy all the more important on Saturday (6 p.m.), when the crucial away game against leaders Stavanger is coming up.