Norway coach Thorir Hergeirsson has led his team back to their first Olympic final in 12 years, thanks to a defensive masterclass in their 25:21 victory over Denmark in Thursday’s semi-final.
Lessons learned
“We worked a lot on defence this summer. We really wanted to make a defence that makes life hard for the opponent and we also have really good goalkeepers, who have worked very well together,” says the Icelandic-born coach, who explains how his side’s past struggles with Denmark informed their development and execution on the biggest stage.
“We’ve played against Denmark a lot, many times in recent years, and in the European Championship in 2022, they outplayed us with 7vs6 in the main round and since then we have learned our ways to cope with this. Now they’re struggling to create chances with it, so I think we’ve developed and prepared very well for it.”
Braced for a bumpy ride
While Norway have dominated in defence and transition attack, their set attacking play hasn’t quite set the world alight and it won’t get any easier in the final against France.
“It’s not concerning me but I think this will be better. We will meet a team on Saturday who is expecting to disturb and take out the rhythm of their opponent, so we have to live with confidence that it will not be in flow, it will be bumpy, and if we do that, we’ll fix it.”
Norway have navigated this tournament masterfully since their opening round loss to Sweden just over two weeks ago. Gold is on the mind for everyone in Norway and the psychological aspect of dealing with this expectation is not lost on their coach.
“We lost the first game and it tested our resilience. We worked a lot on this over the last three years as individuals and a group to cope with these situations, which we’ve done really well, and I think the answer came a little bit in this semi-final as we coped with a lack of rhythm in attack and solve it.”
A dream final
The 60-year-old was part of the coaching staff in 2008, before taking over as head coach the following year. Although he has brought this team bundles of success at world and European level, a return to the Olympic final has been long awaited.
“It’s a dream for every athlete and coach to play in the final of the Olympic Games. I’ve been part of the coaching staff for two finals in 2008 and 2012 and I will enjoy it, because now this is France, in France with only French fans, it’s nice.”
Norway look to provide the perfect send-off to the legendary Stine Oftedal, and perhaps a few more players, with gold on Saturday at 15:00 CEST, when they will have to overcome the reigning champions and the majority of a 27,000 crowd with all of their development over the past three years put to the ultimate test.