An Olympic team achieved third place in the 1936 Olympics, after beating the hosts Germany earlier in the tournament.
At its height in the mid-90s the team was even ranked second on the FIFA World Rankings. Olsen started his training career with Norway with a 6–1 home victory against surprise 1990 quarter-finalists Cameroon on 31 October 1990 and ended it on 27 June 1998 after a 0–1 defeat against Italy in the second stage of the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
In the 1994 World Cup in the United States, Norway was knocked out at the group stage after a win against Mexico, a defeat against Italy and a draw against the Republic of Ireland. In France 1998, Norway was eliminated by Italy in the first round of the knock out stage after finishing second in their group, having drawn against Morocco and Scotland and won 2–1 against Brazil.
The former under-21 coach Nils Johan Semb replaced Olsen after the planned retirement of the latter, but did not manage to achieve the same results as Olsen. He was replaced by Rosenborg coach Åge Hareide at the end of 2003.
Some of Norway's best single results are: Norway–Brazil 2–1 on 23 June 1998 in the World Cup group stage, and Norway–Brazil 4–2 on 30 May 1997. In fact, Norway is the only team in the world who has played Brazil and never lost competitively, winning three matches and drawing on two other occasions.
Early history Association football came to Norway from Great Britain in the 1880s, and quickly became popular both in terms of active players and as a spectator sport. Norway's first football club, Christiania FC was founded in 1885. The oldest club still in existence is Odd Grenland, formed in 1894. In the following years, several more clubs were formed, and in 1902 the Football Association of Norway was formed. Later that year, the inaugural Norwegian Football Cup was held. However, it wasn't until 1908, at the invitation of the Swedish FA, that a national team was put together.
The first international match Norway's first-ever international game was played on 12 July 1908 in Gothenburg, Sweden. This was also Sweden's first-ever international match. It was decided that Oslo club Mercantile FK, who were the reigning Norwegian champions, should represent Norway in this match. However, some of the players from the 1907 team were injured or otherwise unable to travel, so a couple of players from other clubs had to be called up as replacements. Nonetheless, nine of the eleven players in Norway's lineup that day were Mercantile players. The two non-Mercantile players in the team were Victor Nysted from Lyn and Frithjof Skonnord from Gjøvik/Lyn.MATCH: 12.07.1908 Sweden - Norway 11:3, eu-football.info. Retrieved on 10 October 2010.
Another player on the Norway side was Tryggve Gran, who had moved to Oslo from Bergen a couple of months earlier and joined Mercantile. Gran would later become famous as an aviator and polar explorer. The Norway team also included Paul Hauman, a Belgian engineer who was working in Norway at the time. Because he played for Mercantile, and because there were no clear international eligibility rules at the time, Hauman was able to play for Norway in this match despite being a citizen of Belgium. To this day, Hauman remains the only player who has played for the Norway team without holding a Norwegian passport.
The match started well for the Norwegians. Within the first minute, Minotti Bøhn scored the first goal of the game, but then Sweden took over and scored the next five goals before Hans Endrerud reduced the deficit right before half-time. Sweden continued to run rampant in the second half, and Norway's only consolation was a second goal from Bøhn. When the referee blew the final whistle, Sweden had won by a score of 11–3.
A popular anecdote from this match is the story of Tryggve Gran fighting for the flag. At the time of the match, only three years had passed since Norway's independence from Sweden, and there was still bitterness about the dissolution of the union on both sides of the border. Near the end of the match, some Swedish spectators mockingly lowered the Norwegian flag at the stadium to half mast, which Gran took as a great insult. While the match was still being played, he walked off the pitch to the flagpole to raise the flag back to the top.
1910s After the heavy defeat against Sweden, it would take two years until the next time a Norwegian national side was put together. Once again, the Swedes were the opposition, and this time it was the Norwegians who held the home-field advantage. It was, however, the Swedes who won the match. This time, the final score was 4–0. Norway also went home with two straight defeats when they participated in the Stockholm Olympics of 1912. The opponents were Denmark and Austria.
Overall, the period between 1908 and 1917 is a sorry chapter in the Norwegian national team's history. In those nine years, Norway failed to win a single game. Rock bottom was reached on 7 October 1917 when Norway were routed 12–0 against Denmark. To this date, this is Norway's heaviest ever defeat.
Near the end of the decade, things began to improve. A new national team coach was hired in 1918. His name was Birger Möller, and he was Swedish. Möller is said to have been an excellent motivator, and spent a lot of time practicing team play and technical skills – and good results followed. On 16 June 1918, after 27 straight games without a win, Norway avenged the embarrassing defeat in Copenhagen the year before by winning 3–1 against Denmark in Oslo to record its first-ever victory. A few months later, Norway defeated arch-rivals Sweden by a score of 5–1 in Gothenburg, which was Norway's first-ever away victory.
1920s
Norway's biggest star in the 1920s was unquestionably Einar "Jeja" Gundersen, who scored a total of 26 international goals between 1917 and 1928. Other stars at the time were team captain Gunnar Andersen (Lyn), Per Skou (Lyn and Odd) and Asbjørn Halvorsen (Sarpsborg). These players formed the core of the side that participated in the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, where Norway got their greatest win to that date.
In the opening match of the Olympic tournament, Norway faced pre-tournament favorites England. It may have been an amateur side, but England was nevertheless the home of football, and the team was expected to ease past Norway. It is said that Gunnar Andersen was the first to show that the English players were not supermen, by dribbling past several players. His confidence passed on to the other Norwegian players, and when the smoke cleared, Norway had won 3–1 courtesy of two goals by "Jeja" Gundersen and one goal by Einar Wilhelms.
In the next round, Norway faced Czechoslovakia, but there was to be no repeat of the sensational win against England. The Czechoslovaks won the game 4–0.
Norway claimed a few more scalps in the following years, including a 2–0 win against France in Paris in 1923, as well as a few more wins against arch-rivals Sweden. However, in the latter half of the 1920s, the golden era was over. Between 1924 and 1928, Norway won only four matches – all of them against Finland.
The bad spell began to end near the turn of the decade, largely thanks to new star players like goalkeeper Henry "Tippen" Johansen and striker Jørgen Juve, who is Norway's all-time leading scorer on international level with 33 goals. On 23 June 1929, Juve scored twice as Norway defeated Denmark by a score of 5–2 in Copenhagen. It was Norway's first-ever away win against Denmark.
1930s In 1933, Viking's brilliant inside-forward Reidar Kvammen made his international debut. Two years later, Lyn's wing wizard Arne Brustad made his debut. Furthermore, in 1934, former national team hero Asbjørn Halvorsen returned home after 12 years in Germany. These events mark the start of what is known as Norwegian football's "Bronze Age".
When Halvorsen returned from Germany, he was hired as general secretary of the NFF, and thus also became chairman of the national team's selection committee. At the time, team selection was handled by the selection committee, while the coach's sole responsibility was training the players the selection committee had picked. However, Halvorsen also named himself team coach, and thus became Norway's first "modern" national team manager.
Norway had gotten several good results leading up to the Berlin Olympics, including wins against Austria and Hungary. Even so, few people believed Norway would stand a chance in the Olympic tournament, especially since they were scheduled to face the host nation in the second round (if they could get past Turkey in the opener). The match against Turkey went easier than expected, as Norway won 4–0. The next match was against the Germans, who had demolished Luxembourg 9–0 in their opener. It is said that the Norwegians were so sure of defeat that they had booked return tickets to Norway two days after the Germany game. If this is true, the travel arrangements would have had to be altered.
In front of a capacity crowd that included Hitler and Goebbels, Norway got a fully deserved 2–0 win against the hosts. Both goals were scored by Magnar Isaksen, and the win meant that Germany were knocked out and Norway advanced to the semi-finals, where they faced Italy. The match against Italy was a closely contested one, but the Italians eventually won the game 2–1 after extra time. Arne Brustad scored the Norwegian goal. Next up was the third-place match against Poland, where Brustad scored a hat-trick and guided Norway to a 3–2 victory. Norway had won the bronze medals, and Brustad was hailed as one of the best players of the tournament.
Two years later, Norway took part in their first FIFA World Cup. Norway had qualified after defeating the Republic of Ireland by an aggregate score of 6–5. Reidar Kvammen was the big hero, having scored twice in both matches. The 1938 World Cup was a straight knockout tournament, and in the opening round, Norway were drawn against defending world champions Italy.
The match, which was played in Marseille, was very tight and exciting. Italy took an early lead, but Norway equalised seven minuted before the final whistle, when Brustad ran past the entire Italian defence and slotted the ball past the keeper. A few minutes later, everyone believed that Brustad had added his second, but this goal was disallowed because of a highly disputed offside call. So, just like in the Olympic tournament two years earlier, the game went to extra time – and once again, the Italians came out on top thanks to a goal by Silvio Piola. And just like in the 1936 Olympics, Italy went on to win the entire tournament. There was a small consolation for Brustad later that year, when he was picked in the "Rest of Europe XI" that played against England at Wembley.
On 22 October 1939, Norway lost 4–1 against Denmark in Copenhagen. This would turn out to become Norway's last international match for nearly six years.
1940s When Norway was invaded by Germany in 1940, practically all organized football operations were ceased. Asbjørn Halvorsen was among the figureheads of the sports boycott, and was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Many other sports figures, including Reidar Kvammen, were also put in concentration camps. Although many players tried to keep fit, and a few illegal matches were organized, the six-year hiatus set Norwegian football back by several years – which became painstakingly evident in the first post-war game against Sweden in Stockholm on 21 October 1945.