Norway's World Cup run ended the way most great runs do: heartbreaking, extra time, a late gut-punch. England beat them 2-1 after extra time in the quarterfinals, with Jude Bellingham scoring twice including the winner deep into the additional 30, after Andreas Schjelderup had given Norway the lead in the first half. That's it, that's the whole tournament for Norway. Season over. And yet somehow that's not even the most notable part of this story.
After losing to England in the Quarterfinals, the entire damn country of Norway showed up for a World Cup parade back home https://t.co/Hkw37Z59Ob
Because Norway didn't come home and slink into the shadows. They came home to what by all accounts was a legitimately massive celebration in Oslo, complete with a royal reception, water cannons at the airport, and streets so jammed with people the bus reportedly had to stop and reverse at one point because the crowd wouldn't clear a path. This is not normal quarterfinal-loser behavior. This is title-parade energy for a team that didn't win a title.
The entire country of Norway came out to celebrate the teams return home https://t.co/Gs2gfBpdF0
And honestly? Fair. This was Norway's deepest World Cup run in program history, a country that hasn't historically been a men's soccer power showing up and taking a genuine bite out of a stacked bracket before finally getting stopped by England, who's now off to face either Argentina or Switzerland in the semis. When you've never gotten this far before, a quarterfinal exit reads less like a loss and more like proof of concept. Norway didn't need a trophy to feel like they'd arrived.
Then there's Erling Haaland, who is somehow becoming the most American guy in Norway without ever suiting up in the States. The clip going around isn't about anything he did on the pitch — it's just Haaland in his national team gear, vibing amid a chaotic scene involving a raccoon getting into a bottle on a bathroom counter, which is a pretty perfect encapsulation of unhinged good times.
At this point Erling Haaland is an honorary American https://t.co/NYYUEDY7bN
The bigger point stands regardless of the raccoon: a country of roughly 5.5 million people turned out in force, reportedly over 100,000 strong, for a team that came up one goal short in extra time of a semifinal. That's not a participation trophy mentality, that's just a fanbase that understands the difference between losing and failing. Norway didn't win the World Cup. They just might have won the summer.