The former Wizards season in MLS continues to wind down and while there weren't a lot of goals this week by players, there was some news involving former Wizards. First I've added two new players to the list, as the Jermaine Hue and the Jamaican league started up a little bit ago. And the Wizards 4th round draft pick this past year, Akeem Priestly is now playing in the top division in Azerbaijan.

Yes, after a gaffe-tastic round 8 we have to ask. You can keep your Frank Haffey, your Fred Martin and all of your Andy Gorams, on the evidence of tonight the Norwegian goalkeepers are as dodgy as they come.

Starting with what should be the big dog, Rune Jarstein, assumed to be Drillo's first choice for the upcoming internationals.

This recent bout of hot weather has made Norwegians hit the beaches like dyslexic gangsta rappers, but like busses in the Stavanger-area the Tippeliga waits for no one, and so here is a quick roundup of the latest batch of games from the top tier of Norwegian football.

By now you really must be getting tired of reading this phrase, but it continues to be the case and we're too hot to figure out a more clever way of wording it: Unless Rosenborg sell their entire midfield in the summer, they'll win the league.

Rosenborg and Molde are still going strong, but NFN takes time out to salute the efforts of this years promoted teams, who have all been superb so far. Other notable events this weekend include the continuing struggles of Stabæk, Viking possibly turning some kind of corner and renewed calls for Mad Martin to go away.

And we use the term loosely (tackle, not Norway) Were you watching the ball? Yeah, you would have missed Aalesund's Kenneth Dorken's wild off-the-ball assault on Johan Arneng of Odd Grenland in that case. Calm, calculated, and comical. Cheers to Garreth Cummins of the Football Supporters' Federation for the heads up.

You know it's been an eventful round when a goalkeeper can slap someone in the face and no one really takes any notice. Even Norwegian broadcaster TV2, who are more interested in controversies than actual football, had more interesting things to talk about this week. Erik "Myggen" Mykland made his first appearance in the Tippeliga in 13 years, Christian Bolanos recorded an early candidate for goal of the season, Rosenborg showed why their name is on the trophy this season, an 18 year-old defeated the reigning champions and Sandefjord won their first away-game at the highest level in 15 attempts.

Midweek madness in the Tippeliga! While you're waiting for a certain Champions League semi-final to kick off, why not sit back and watch some players who don't make more in a week than you do in a year? It's fun, we promise..

Wednesday

Sandefjord (4th) - Viking (5th)

Have Viking turned a corner ?

The annual May 16th round of the Tippeliga attracts big crowds of people ready for a party, as people look to kick off the May 17th constitutional day celebrations a few hours early.

No place typifies the May 16th phenomenon like Brann Stadion. Now Brann-fans are a fickle bunch, but when they're all out and up for it there are few grounds in the Tippeliga that generates a better atmosphere, and May 16th is usually one of those occasions.

Enough with this international nonsense, let's get on with the proper football..

Saturday

Rosenborg (1st) Strømsgodset (13th)

And we start this weekend's preview with an appeal. Strømsgodset are a nice little team with a likable manager and a bunch of sympathetic players (and Stian Ohr).

As clubs across the board sack players and cut wages, we here at NFN plow on heroically..

Saturday

Sandefjord (9th) Vålerenga (5th)

After Mad Martin Andresen realized he was about to lose his job a couple of weeks back, he shelved ambitions of playing expansive football and went into "let's just not get fired"-mode.

A rare outbreak of sunshine in the Western bits of the country has left NFN's Norwegian offices in a state of confusion and chaos, yet we struggle manfully on and here is an unusually pithy preview of this weekend's action.

Sunday

Tromsø (13th) Aalesund (9th)

Tromsø will be desperate to improve on their rubbish home-record (1-4-2), while Aalesund will be desperate to get attention for something else than what's coming out of their manager's mouth.

Well, terrific if you like your games full of goals and incidents. No so much if you like, youknow, vaguely competent defenders.

After a couple of pretty stale rounds the Tippeliga perked up a bit in round 17, with goals flying in at a fairly bonkers rate of 4,4 goals per game. Still, no matter how hard the ever-excitable TV2 tried to talk it up, it was hard for the discerning viewer to watch the weekend's highlights without being slightly troubled by the hopelessly poor defending displayed by most of the Tippeliga outfits.

Sunday

Start (3rd) - Bodø/Glimt (9th)

While Start's diminutive druggie may be almost universally adored by Norwegian football fans, Erik Mykland has been cynically kicked around the park by most teams he's come up against so far this season. Sporting director Svein Mathisen is less than thrilled: "Everyone thought it was great that Myggen was making a comeback beforehand, but now people are trying to put him out of the game," he told TV2, before going on to suggest that the players who rough up Mykland should be sent off.

Today is in fact the 98th anniversary of the Titanic being launched, and NFN is acknowledging this by publishing this unsinkable preview, which will no doubt hit a metaphorical iceberg at the earliest possible opportunity.

Monday

Fredrikstad (13th) - Start (2nd)

FFK's bright idea of going into the season with eight players in their first team squad on the last year of their contracts was always going to end up creating some sort of a stink, and their chief executive's bright idea of telling Norway's biggest tabloid that the situation was like "winning the lottery" didn't really help.

Tippeliga rounds are coming thick and fast, and the market is in severe danger of being flooded. The issue is in no way helped by the fact that Rosenborg are running away with the league, while everyone else just look a bit knackered. So, with the league currently a less than entrancing event in purely sporting terms, we need some good old soap-opera to keep it interesting.

This weekend's Tippeliga preview contains pollen allergy, diving, a first mention of NFN's smug-o-meter, an injured Jesus look-alike, stripping and the possibility of a sporting director going into orbit. What more could you possibly want?

Saturday

Molde (1st) - Viking (11th)

As the Norwegian end of NFN well knows, it's simply impossible to make pollen allergy sound butch.

Slap on a facemask, stock up on tamiflu and come this way for an all coughing, all sniffling preview of the 6th round of the Tippeliga..

Saturday

Aalesund (5th) - Molde (2nd)

One of the fiercest rivalries in the league, this encounter has been given some extra gloss because of the fact that both teams are riding uncharacteristically high in the table.

Norwegian teams are off on the road to Ullevål after a first round that was like a footballing equivalent of a Harry Potter-convention: Plenty of belief, but no actual magic to be found.

The Norwegian cup is a terrifically democratic competition: No favors are given to the big names from the Tippeliga as they start on square one along with the rest of the pack.

Before this round pundits were claiming that the high number of draws and away wins this season meant the 2009 Tippeliga is a bit rubbish. With seven out of seven games played over the weekend ending in a home win, does that mean it's now quite good?

Kjetil Rekdal's superbly entertaining rants at his own players this season has prompted much moralizing and finger-wagging from people who think they know better.

13 games in and there are three teams in particular who look like they could be heading for doom and despair (or the Adeccoliga, as some call it), but amidst the casual randomness of the Tippeliga few things are ever certain and on matchday 14 all three of those teams picked up points..

Leading the line of the troubled threesome is Lyn, who even by their standards face a remarkably bleak set of circumstances.

After several teams looked sluggish and tired at the weekend, this midweek round could see some very random results even by the Tippeliga's standards..

Wednesday

Fredrikstad (14th) Lyn (16th)

One rather peculiar quirk of the current standings is that bottom of the table Lyn actually have a better goal difference than Aalesund, who are eighth.

Kjetil Rekdal downs the mighty Brazil by Chris RockThere was quite a hot "discussion" between Aalesund manager and legendary former Norwegian international Kjetil Rekdal and Brann's former Leeds...

Really, this has to stop now, this wonderfully stereotype-busting weather currently enjoyed in most of the country makes it virtually impossible to get anything done.

Saturday

Sandefjord (9th) Odd Grenland (3rd)

Right, the fact that this game is well underway at the time of writing renders this preview utterly pointless.

Hunter Freeman and Start sputtered at home versus Aalesund in the Eliteserien while Jay Needham and Alta once again prevailed versus Mjondalen in 1. Division action.

In the social democracy that is Norway we're all about sharing, but this is getting ridiculous: A baffling six out of seven games this weekend ended in 1-1 draws. You'd think that with all this brotherly sharing of points going on the aftermath would be a tranquil one, but the fallout from the weekend fixtures is dominated by various forms of angry men.

Don your party hat and ready your flag, tomorrow is the traditional May 16th round of the Tippeliga and we're all going to party like Steffen Iversen on a weeknight.

Vålerenga (8th) - Fredrikstad (6th)

According to polls on the Dagbladet website, Vålerenga have both the best and the worst fans in the country, neatly illustrating the problem with such polls.

More midweek madness in the Tippeliga as Molde try to keep up with Rosenborg, Mad Martin tries to hold on to his job for a few more days, Lyn try to keep the derby-ghost alive and Viking try to be less terrible at football.

Thursday

Molde (2nd) - Tromsø (12th)

The whole Tore Reginiussen-situation is growing increasingly bizarre.

Rosenborg still better than anyone else, Brann still can't be bothered against smaller teams, Molde still quite tasty, Viking still struggling: In the excessively random world of the Tippeliga there are still some things you can rely on..

The best team in the league versus the (on current form) worst, Rosenborg's visit to Bodø was always going to end badly for the hosts.

Honestly, it may be that our brains were dulled by watching Norway and that we've lost the ability to judge these things objectively, but wasn't that a rather good round?

The Tippeliga rolled back into life in predictable fashion this Saturday when Rosenborg won 3-0 over a hard-working but undeniably limited Strømsgodset.

The second round of the Norwegian cup was so staggeringly uneventful and dull that we here at NFN elected to ignore it altogether. However, with an epic shootout in the South, a local derby in the Southwest and rampant minnows up North, the third round was an entirely different kettle of fish...

We start up North with the upset that wasn't really an upset.

Aalesund goalkeeper Adin Brown is optimistic that his recovery from heel surgery will be complete by next month.

Rodrigo Kent, el Director Técnico de la Selección de Costa Rica ha dado su lista de 26 jugadores seleccionados para jugar contra México el 5 de Septiembre y contra El Salvador el 9 de Septiembre.

Los 26 jugadores deben presentarse el día de mañana al hotel de concentración muy temprano donde entrenarán ese mismo día.

Hunter Freeman and Clarence Goodson return home to face Aalesund while Tyrel Lacey and Lyn hope to make the best of things versus Stromsgodset as the Eliteserien returns to action this weekend.

With Tromsø and Rosenborg yet to play it's fair to say that round 2 of the 2009 Tippeliga was richer in drama and talking points than it was in quality of football. After a week that's been dominated by talk of just how doomed Mad Martin's job at Vålerenga is and just how rubbish Brann are, [...]

Coming to you this week live from a rather unpleasant coffeehouse in Oslo, it's the world famous Tippeliga preview! Saturday Viking (3rd) - Start (7th) Very rarely does a points-average of 1 point per game put you in the top half of the table, but that's the situation for Start just two games into the 2009 Tippeliga.

Coming to you this week live from a rather unpleasant coffeehouse in Oslo, it's the world famous Tippeliga preview! Saturday Viking (3rd) - Start (7th) Very rarely does a points-average of 1 point per game put you in the top half of the table, but that's the situation for Start just two games into the 2009 Tippeliga.

Now what's this then? A clear blue sky and not a rain-bearing cloud in sight? In Bergen?! The town is ripe with confusion and scantily clad felines, while in Oslo flying pigs have been spotted, Sarpsborg has frozen over and apparently Azar Karadas managed to successfully control the ball several times during Brann's training-session yesterday.

In the social democracy that is Norway we're all about sharing, but this is getting ridiculous: A baffling six out of seven games this weekend ended in 1-1 draws. You'd think that with all this brotherly sharing of points going on the aftermath would be a tranquil one, but the fallout from the weekend fixtures is dominated by various forms of angry men.

Now what's this then? A clear blue sky and not a rain-bearing cloud in sight? In Bergen?! The town is ripe with confusion and scantily clad felines, while in Oslo flying pigs have been spotted, Sarpsborg has frozen over and apparently Azar Karadas managed to successfully control the ball several times during Brann's training-session yesterday.

In the social democracy that is Norway we're all about sharing, but this is getting ridiculous: A baffling six out of seven games this weekend ended in 1-1 draws. You'd think that with all this brotherly sharing of points going on the aftermath would be a tranquil one, but the fallout from the weekend fixtures is dominated by various forms of angry men.