Erling Haaland watched from the bench as France put four past Norway on Friday in Boston. It was not part of the plan he would have written himself. Stale Solbakken changed 10 of his starters for the final group game, a rotation so deep that Haaland and Martin Odegaard barely broke a sweat while Ousmane Dembele ran wild with a hat trick in a 4-1 win.
Solbakken does not sound worried. When asked about Haaland’s Golden Boot chances taking a hit, he shrugged it off completely. “I don’t care at all,” he said earlier this week. The man has bigger things on his mind, and not just because Norway still has a World Cup to win.
Solbakken survived a cardiac arrest during training in 2001. He was effectively dead for seven minutes before being revived. That kind of experience changes how you think about individual awards. It also explains why he is willing to make a decision that looks reckless to everyone else.
Borrowing from the best
Solbakken said he took inspiration from France at the 2022 World Cup. Didier Deschamps rested Mbappe, Griezmann and Dembele in the final group game that year. France lost 1-0 to Tunisia and then went all the way to the final. Solbakken pointed to that as a model worth following.
Funny thing though. Deschamps did not return the favor here. He went strong against Norway, probably because winning the group mattered more to him than making a point. Mbappe and Michael Olise got the pregame hype, but Dembele stole the show instead.
England did something similar in 2018. Gareth Southgate rested players against Belgium, lost 1-0 and then outperformed expectations all the way to the semifinals. He played a stronger team against Belgium in the third-place game later and got outplayed 2-0. So the evidence is mixed. But Solbakken is betting on the long view.
The price of rest
Norway gave up any real chance of topping Group I. That means a tougher path forward. Ivory Coast is next in Dallas, a team loaded with attacking talent like Yan Diomande and Amad Diallo. Brazil could follow in New Jersey. Sweden, which probably would have been the round of 32 opponent if Norway had won the group, might have been a softer draw.
But there is no guarantee Sweden would have been easy. The rivalry between Norway and Sweden is intense. A derby atmosphere at MetLife Stadium could have worked against them. And nobody knows how the bracket will settle anyway.
What Norway does have now is a fully fresh Haaland and Odegaard for the knockout rounds. They played relentlessly all season. Haaland went through the physical grind of the Premier League with Manchester City. Odegaard played a Champions League final. Give them a night off in a group game they probably lose anyway, and maybe the payoff comes later.
This is the first 48-team World Cup with 104 games in brutal heat. Even Infantino’s water breaks are not fixing the fatigue problem. Every manager is going to face this choice. Solbakken just made his early and without apology.
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