{"id":507298,"date":"2026-06-23T14:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T14:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/507298\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T14:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T14:50:10","slug":"erling-haaland-powers-norway-into-the-next-round-and-keeps-pace-in-golden-boot-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/507298\/","title":{"rendered":"Erling Haaland powers Norway into the next round and keeps pace in Golden Boot race"},"content":{"rendered":"

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. \u2014 On Monday, Norwegians were spotted across New York City dressed in red doing the \u201cViking row,\u201d a fan ritual in which they sit side by side, packed tightly together as if on a ship and mimic as if they were rowing oars in unison. They did it on the subway, in Times Square and sitting on 33rd Street waiting for a train to Norway\u2019s World Cup game. <\/p>\n

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On social media, it looked as if the nation of about 5.6 million people had descended upon Manhattan. Then around 10 p.m. that night, the Norwegians did the row once more inside the New York-New Jersey Stadium, after Norway had defeated Senegal, 3-2.<\/a><\/p>\n

Team Norway joined in on the row, too, with players doing their own version on the field, facing a sea of red in the stands. Leading the way was Erling Haaland, Norway\u2019s star striker, who scored two goals against Senegal after tallying two last week against Iraq. <\/p>\n

Follow along for live coverage<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the first time Norway has made the World Cup since 1998, and it is making up for lost time. After two games, both wins, Norway has already clinched a spot in the knockout round and Haaland is in the running for the Golden Boot, given to the tournament\u2019s top scorer. Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi has five goals and France\u2019s Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 has four. They both scored twice earlier Monday but Haaland matched them to keep pace.<\/p>\n

\"ErlingErling Haaland of Norway celebrates after scoring his second goal to make it 3-1 in Monday’s World Cup match against Senegal.Tom Weller \/ picture alliance \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easier to win the Golden Boot when you play for France and Argentina,\u201d Norway\u2019s manager St\u00e5le Solbakken said after the Senegal match. \u201cBut we\u2019re trying to give Haaland more games and also more help in the next games. He\u2019s on fire and I\u2019m very happy for him that he\u2019s scoring on the biggest stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

All night, the 6-foot-5 Haaland sprinted around the field, his shoulders hunched, stalking the ball like a Viking on the hunt. In stoppage time in the first half, he pressured the Senegalese goalkeeper, who was dribbling the ball, stole it from him and shot on the empty net \u2014 only to hit the frame. Norway retained possession and, moments later, a teammate crossed a pass into the box. Haaland leapt, wound up and headed the ball toward the corner of the net \u2014 only for the goalkeeper to make a save.<\/p>\n

Each time he missed, Haaland fell to his knees, brought his hands over his head and slammed them on the grass. \u201cHe missed an open goal,\u201d Solbakken said. \u201cHe could have scored even four.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, Haaland eventually got a chance to redeem himself. In the 48th minute, Norway was on a fastbreak, when Martin \u00d8degaard threaded a pass to Haaland between two defenders. On his first touch, Haaland drove a shot with his left foot, as he was falling down, into the upper right corner of the net. <\/p>\n

About 10 minutes later, Senegal was having trouble clearing the ball out of its own half when Norway\u2019s Patrick Berg corralled it. He lifted a pass toward Haaland, who volleyed the ball off the crossbar and into the net. Haaland lifted his finger to his ear and looked into the crowd, where Norway fans were going berserk.<\/p>\n

You could hardly tell it was Haaland\u2019s first World Cup. He apparently has a knack for making grand entrances on big stages. In 2019, he scored a hat trick in his first Champions League game \u2014 in the first half. Then in 2022, he scored twice in his Premier League debut for Manchester City. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my speciality to score goals,\u201d Haaland said, when asked to explain the phenomenon. \u201cIt\u2019s like many other things, I\u2019m just really good at scoring goals. And I\u2019m quite lucky. I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing. But yeah. That\u2019s just how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, Norway will play Mbapp\u00e9 and France, who are also 2-0. The winner will clinch Group I, to help with seeding in the knockout round. A Fox Sports reporter asked Haaland about the France match, and he didn\u2019t give the typical cliched athlete answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe managed to get through, which is incredible,\u201d Haaland told the reporter. \u201cI couldn\u2019t care too much about that game now. They\u2019re probably going to win against us. They\u2019re probably going to win the whole tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps Haaland was trying to put things in perspective. This is only the fourth time Norway has made the World Cup, and it\u2019s never advanced past the round of 16. As Norway\u2019s fans left the stadium after the Senegal win, they chanted and sang well into the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m part of something special,\u201d Haaland said. \u201cNorway\u2019s part of something special. We\u2019re making history and I\u2019m extremely proud to be Norwegian.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. \u2014 On Monday, Norwegians were spotted across New York City dressed in red doing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-507298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}