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Valentin, Richards help Bodo/Glimt secure promotion to Norway’s top tier

Zarek Valentin Montreal Impact (Montreal Impact)

By FRANCO PANIZO

A team with plenty of MLS ties has secured promotion back to Norway’s top tier.

FK Bodo/Glimt earned a spot in next season’s Tippeligaen campaign on Monday with a 1-0 victory over SK Vard Haugesund. Former New York Red Bulls midfielder Dane Richards score the decisive goal while Montreal Impact loanee Zarek Valentin reportedly turned in a solid outing in defense.

With promotion from the Adeccoligaen now secured, the team coached by former Red Bulls assistant Jan Halvor Halvorsen will shift their focus towards winning the league title. Bodo/Glimt can do so with a single win in any of their final five matches.

What do you think of Valentina and Richards helping Bodo/Glimt secure promotion to Norway’s top tier? Surprised by all the MLS connection on the club? Think Valentin should try and seek a permanent move to Bodo/Glimt?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. “A real legacy of failure” – Would that include the NCAA Championship that Valentin, Kitchen and Sarkodie won while at Akron? Playing Kitchen “out of position at center back”? So players NEVER change positions as they progress through their career? When you get to college, it’s a collection of High School Stars – 80% of which probably played central midfield on their high school team. Should Akron just line up with 8 guys all sharing the center of midfield? It’s a career progression – people learn and change positions all the time. Andrew Wenger (MTL) – Central Midfielder in High School – 2008 National Soccer Coaches’ Association National Player of the Year. Two years at Duke (ACC strong conference) – Wins ACC Rookie of the Year and then ACC Defensive Player of the year in 2010 and 2011. Moves to FORWARD his Junior year and wins the Hermann Trophy. Guess that coach was a moron too?

    Valentin is in the final year of his Guaranteed contract from Generation Adidas. If he sits on the bench for every game in Montreal he gets paid. Instead looks to further his career by uprooting himself to play in Norway for a team that wanted him. Is anyone saying the Norway 2nd division is as good as the MLS? I doubt it. But you get better by playing games and pushing yourself to the next level.

    Why anyone would take the time to write a comment bashing these young athletes who are working hard to make a living at what they love is confusing to me.

    Let’s keep it classy.

    Reply
  2. Richards has six goals in 24 matches (19 starts) for Bodø/Glimt. They do indeed have a 14-point lead over Mix Diskerud’s old club, Stabæk, with five to play.

    Reply
  3. the stats about securing promotion, followed by the ability to win the league with 1 win in any of the last 5 games suggests to me, the Norway has 21 good teams, and only 20 places. They must be ROUTING the rest of that league.

    Reply
    • I think it more reflects the fact that there are often “tweener” teams in these pro/rel leagues that yoyo back and forth. B/G has been down twice and then up twice in the last 15 years. For an English example, QPR began the EPL era in the EPL, dropped to Champ., dropped to 2d, rose to Champ., rose to EPL, dropped to Champ. last year, and is now the first place team there, who would be promoted automatically as of today. Ditto Sunderland and a few others.

      So I’d instead say that there are usually a chunk of teams that compete for the league, a tier of also rans who nonetheless aren’t worried about the drop for long periods, and then a set of teams at the top end of the Championship and the bottom end of the EPL that trade places. The pro/rel crowd tends to finesse this tiering and the “usual suspects” scenario it creates for the teams going up and down divisions (or being in the neighborhood). The last time ManU went down was 74; Chelsea was last down in 88; City was last down in 98.

      I mean, if you look at B/G, it’s two winning top division seasons, and otherwise they alternate between winning in the second division til promoted and losing in the first until relegated.

      Reply
    • By way of Burnley (Eng. Champ.). He went to Burnley, played two games and apparently visibly looked out of his depth, was loaned to Bodo and later released from Burnley, then signed with Bodo full time.

      I thought Sweden and Denmark were the Scandinavian leagues that paid real money. I can’t believe Norway2 is better money or quality than simply eating your humble pie and coming back here. I mean, Cam Weaver (Houston) had 21 goals in Norway2 fresh off playing for a decent minor league Seattle frontline of Galindo and Weaver. Weaver has 11 goals in 5 seasons back in MLS, and until this year hadn’t scored in 2 years. So Norway2 might even equate to North American minor league ball.

      Reply
    • Forget Dane Richards, how embarrassing is it that Caleb Porter was consistently playing his Akron buddy Zarek Valentin (in addition to his Akron buddies Kitchen out of position at CB, Sarkodie at RB even though he was getting zero minutes in MLS) in Olympic qualifying? Valentin also played consistently for the US U-20 team that failed to qualify for the first time ever. He left behind a real legacy of failure on his way to the Norwegian second divison….

      Reply
      • Re-posting the comment from above by “just the facts” which seems better suited as a REPLY to this silly thread.

        “A real legacy of failure” – Would that include the NCAA Championship that Valentin, Kitchen and Sarkodie won while at Akron? Playing Kitchen “out of position at center back”? So players NEVER change positions as they progress through their career? When you get to college, it’s a collection of High School Stars – 80% of which probably played central midfield on their high school team. Should Akron just line up with 8 guys all sharing the center of midfield? It’s a career progression – people learn and change positions all the time. Andrew Wenger (MTL) – Central Midfielder in High School – 2008 National Soccer Coaches’ Association National Player of the Year. Two years at Duke (ACC strong conference) – Wins ACC Rookie of the Year and then ACC Defensive Player of the year in 2010 and 2011. Moves to FORWARD his Junior year and wins the Hermann Trophy. Guess that coach was a moron too?

        Valentin is in the final year of his Guaranteed contract from Generation Adidas. If he sits on the bench for every game in Montreal he gets paid. Instead looks to further his career by uprooting himself to play in Norway for a team that wanted him. Is anyone saying the Norway 2nd division is as good as the MLS? I doubt it. But you get better by playing games and pushing yourself to the next level.

        Why anyone would take the time to write a comment bashing these young athletes who are working hard to make a living at what they love is confusing to me.

        Let’s keep it classy.

      • +1000000000000 it’s easy to bitch about someone when you’re living the usual bs lifestyle. What’s georgie boy & bob doing that’s better than playing professional futbol in europe and bettering themselves?? …..right….typing negative comments in SBI.

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