Into
At the end of the last episode, we left Stefan in 11th place in the all-time goalkeeper goal scoring charts.
Another good season at Aalesund in the 2nd tier of Norwegian football will see a significant climb up the table.
The season
We go into the season with the tried and tested 4-3-3 DM wide that has worked so well for us before. We continue with the young squad and hope to improve or replace any sells we have to make to balance the books as finances are tough at this level.
It’s a slow start to the season for the superstar keeper. It takes seven games before he gets off the mark for the season missing a penalty along the way. Stefan scores the 4th goal, a free kick, in a 4-1 win at home against Eidsvold Turn (he likes scoring against this team previously).
Then in the following game in the Norwegian cup Stefan tucks away a penalty in a 3-0 extra time win against Sandnes Ulf. Two games later Stefan misses a penalty but recovers to bury a second opportunity in a 1-1 draw away to Sogndal. That was it for another 9 games with a penalty miss in the middle of it, he breaks his drought with a penalty against Egersund in a 4-1 thriller at home where we were down to 9 men.
It was an amazing game where we fell behind, but our young squad kept going to managed to hold a lead at half time. The screenshot doesn’t show it but Sundvag received his second yellow on 53 mins with a lunge from behind on the left touchline near the halfway line. I have to re jig the team to try and hold on. I bring on Johnsplass to fill the left back hole and with an identical lunge in almost the same position against the same player he gets sent off too! After another re jig we are able to soak the pressure and hit on the break. Stefan’s penalty was the cherry on the top.
With Stefan stuttering and the team it takes another 10 games before scoring a free kick against Asane in a 3-1 home victory. He missed another pen in the match before.
These misses were proving costly leaving the team too far behind to mount a promotion challenge. This team should be doing better. We end the season in great form sneaking into a play off place. We beat Sogndal 3-1 at home in the play-off quarter final but lose to Haugesund on penalties(no I didn’t make Stefan take one!) after a 1-1 draw at home.
Conclusion
It’s going to be challenging now to reach Rogerio’s total of 131. We needed more seasons scoring double figures really. I think the fact he doesn’t like big matches and his poor penalty taking attribute are what is keeping him from scoring more. I’m pleased he moved into the top ten of all time and I think it is possible to get into the top 3. The next episode will be a leap forward in time to see if Stefan can make significant progress.
If you’d like to see all the goals check out FMGoalieGoals on TikTok https://vm.tiktok.com/ZML667GX2/
Thanks for reading!
MikaelinhoFM 