World Cup<\/a> since 1998.\u00a0<\/p>\nHe needed just two touches to score his goals on Monday night. Played through by Arsenal\u2019s Martin Odegaard on the counter-attack, he cannoned a left-footed effort into the top-right corner of the goal three minutes into the second half to give Norway a 2-0 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just five minutes after Ismaila Sarr pulled one back for Senegal in the 53rd minute, Haaland redirected a Patrick Berg cross with a right-side-footed volley from eight yards out that caromed off the crossbar and in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is just the second player in the last 50 years (Harry Kane, 2018) to score multiple goals in his first two World Cup matches. In 52 caps for his country, he has 59 goals, which puts him on pace to obliterate the current international record held by Portugal\u2019s Cristiano Ronaldo. The legendary, flashy forward has 143 goals in 229 appearances for his country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At Haaland\u2019s current pace, he would have 259 goals. In a poor attempt to avoid hyperbole, that is simply unbelievable.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
But there is zero indication that he can be stopped. Haaland is just 25, and Norway is shaping up to be a legitimate European threat as long as he wears its No. 9 shirt. That already puts the World Cup\u2019s all-time goal-scoring record, wherever it may settle when Messi\u2019s tournament is over \u2014 he passed Mirsolav Klose\u2019s mark of 16 on Monday and now sits at 18 \u2014 and Mbappe (16) subsequently passes him in the coming years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All this is coming from one of the most unlikely corners of Europe. After all, this is just the fourth time Norway has ever appeared in a World Cup.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the best striker,\u201d Solbakken said. \u201cHe\u2019s not playing for France or Argentina. He\u2019s playing for Norway. He\u2019s scoring braces on the biggest stage for Norway\u2026 It\u2019s easier to win the Golden Boot when you play for France or Argentina. But we will try to give him more help in the next game\u2026 I\u2019m very happy that he\u2019s scoring on the biggest stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more on Erling Haaland and the World Cup, visit AMNY.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAST RUTHERFORD \u2014\u00a0If New York thought its alien invasion was over when the Knicks downed Victor Wembanyama in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5805,98038,9,24,55,54,75537,56,400,319,14771],"class_list":["post-274847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-erling-haaland","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-norway","tag-ny","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}