Norway Is Picture Perfect
The last time she was seen on a World Cup field, Ann Kristin Aarones was wearing a ludicrously floppy red hat and grinning from ear to ear.
And for good reason. She was surrounded by photographers intent on snapping a picture of the player who not only was holding the Women’s World Championship trophy aloft, but also was the tournament’s top goal scorer.
That was four years ago in Sweden, where Norway defeated Germany in the rain in Stockholm to become world champion.
Long after the other players had left the field, the 6-foot-1 Aarones was still out there, enjoying the moment, posing in the funny hat that had been passed to her by a Norwegian fan and recalling all six of her Sweden ’95 goals.
Flash forward to Wednesday night. Aarones once again was on a World Cup field, making her USA ’99 debut after missing Norway’s opening victory over Russia, and once again the goals flowed.
The lanky forward with the white headband banged in two of them in the first half and assisted on one other in the second 45 minutes as Norway overwhelmed Canada, 7-1, in front of 16,448 at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium to become the first team to secure a place in the quarterfinals.
It took Aarones, from the town of Aalesund on Norway’s west coast, only eight minutes to put the world champions ahead, volleying in a pass from Monica Knudsen.
After Canada’s Charmaine Hooper tied the score in the 31st minute, Aarones restored Norway’s lead five minutes later with a close-range header off a cross by Unni Lehn from the right corner.
After that, it was all downhill for the Canadians, who yielded five more goals in the second half. One of them brought a memorable bit of showmanship from the irrepressible Linda Medalen.
After throwing herself through the air to head in a Hege Riise corner kick, Medalen, a veteran of the 1991 and 1995 world championships, raced back toward the Norwegian bench, pulling her shirt up over her head, mimicking a celebratory stunt often pulled by male players.
“I was joking with the girls [her teammates] about the shirt and that no women do that, only men,” she said. “So of course I’m crazy enough and I had to do it.”
But it was Aarones who set the tone for the lopsided victory that sends a signal to challengers such as China, the United States and Brazil that Norway is not about to give up its title without a fight.
“She’s a very good tactical player,” Norway Coach Per Mathias Hogmo said of Aarones. “She has phenomenal skills. She can create goals and she can create chances and she’s good in the air, so she and Marianne [Pettersen] play very well together.”
Her height makes Aarones appear slow, almost ungainly, but it is an illusion, Hogmo said.
“Football is not only in the foot, it’s also in the head, so she has both [skill and intelligence],” he said. “She’s also faster than she looks. We are very happy for Ann Kristin because she had a tough time at home before we came here.”
Aarones had been laid low by a knee injury and a virus and almost didn’t make Norway’s roster. Hogmo delayed naming his team until it was certain she would be available.
There was no floppy hat for Aarones to parade around in Wednesday, but goals by teammates Lehn, Riise, Pettersen and Solveig Gulbrandsen made sure she might still be able to do so in the Rose Bowl on July 10.
