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Norway National Football Team

Head coach: Åge Hareide
Captain: Martin Andresen
Top scorer: Jørgen Juve
FIFA ranking: 36

The Norwegian national football team, controlled by the Norwegian Football Association, is the national football team of Norway. It has participated three times in the World Cup; in 1938, 1994 and 1998. It plays its home games in Ullevaal Stadium, which seats 25,572 spectators. The Norwegian national team continues to be the only team never defeated by Brazil.

An Olympic team achieved third place in the 1936 Olympics, after beating the hosts Germany earlier in the tournament.

Norway had their most successful period from 1990 to 1998 under the legendary coach Egil Roger Olsen. Together with a rising quality in Norwegian players, Olsen is given much of the credit for taking Norway's national team from obscurity and turning them into a dreaded opponent, respected around the world[citation needed]. At its height in the mid-90's the team was even ranked second on the FIFA World Rankings. Olsen started his training career with Norway with a 6-1 home victory against Cameroon October 31, 1990 and ended it on June 27, 1998 after a 0-1 defeat against Italy in the second stage of the 1998 World Cup.

In the 1994 World Cup in the USA, Norway was knocked out at the group stage after a win against Mexico, a defeat against Italy and a draw against the Republic of Ireland. In France 1998, Norway was eliminated by Italy in the first round of the knock out stage after finishing second in their group, having drawn against Morocco and Scotland and won 2-1 against Brazil. During the 1998 World Cup tournament Norway received some criticism, claiming their somewhat defensive tactics ruined the fun of the game[citation needed].

The former U-21 coach Nils Johan Semb replaced Olsen after the planned retirement of the latter, but did not manage to achieve the same results as Olsen. He was replaced by Rosenborg coach Åge Hareide at the end of 2003.

Some of Norway's best single results are: Norway-Brazil 2-1 on June 23, 1998 in the World Cup group stage, and Norway-Brazil 4-2 on May 30, 1997. In fact, Norway is the only team in the world who has played Brazil and never lost, winning two matches and drawing on two other occasions.