Not quite satisfied Ola By
By Håvard Lindheim, 12 August 2004, 11:48
An Ola By Rise on the offense met the press after the Maccabi Haifa match.
BELIEVES IN ADVANCEMENT: Ola By Rise has high hopes for Champions League the coming autumn.
Photo: Åsmund Sjøberg
Even tough 2-1 is not a very good home result in Europe, it still is better than both a loss and a draw - Ola By Rise and his men still have high hopes for the combined result.
"We haven't lost an official match since May 16th. On away games in Europe we have played well earlier, as late as the Red Star game last year. Then we had an even worse result from home, with lots of enthusiastic home supporters, but still we won 0-1. In the dressing room after the match there is no feeling of defeat. We shall manage this," By Rise stated after the game.
What Ola couldn't answer was what happened to RBK for the last part of the first half.
"The first 20 minutes are great. We play and run through their defense, and get an early 2-0 lead. Then we start putting more people up front and beging playing a game of short passes - something Maccabi Haifa defends easily against. Throughout the second half we have a good pressure and create five large chances, but with no result. 2-1 was the final score. Pity, because we should have had at least another goal, judging from our chances."
Was Maccabi Haifa better than you tought?
"They were much like we expected. After 2-0 they got considerably better. In our best periods we are good at using their weak sides, while in our weaker periods we used a gameplaying style where they are better. But I am not surprised at their skills. The team consists mostly of internationals, and Israelic football generally has a high level," Ola By Rise answers on a direct question from rbkweb.com.
At the same time, Ola By feels that not all the RBK players had a peak day, and this more or less caused the tiny victory.
"Not everyone played at peak performance today. We did not manage to score towards the end of the game, as hoped. It could be that some still felt the tough game against Lillestrøm last weekend. Still, if more of the players perform at their best level in Israel, I have high hopes for an advancement."
Players like Harald Brattbakk, Jan Gunnar Solli, Roar Strand and Frode Johnsen got some extra words of praise by the coach.
