Text: Ronja Pavall
Photo: Ronja Pavall/NTNUI Blits

This fall, NTNUI Trondheim’s A football team was invited by our little brother, NTNUI Ålesund, for a match of pride, bragging rights, and, of course, a significant trophy! Unfortunately, our team couldn’t make it as they already had other commitments. Ålesund had already booked Colorline Stadium, and it would have been a shame to let it go to waste. So, the format of this football match was changed, and it was decided to have NTNUI Trondheim Admin vs. NTNUI Ålesund Admin. After our wonderful team leader, Mia Olden Larsen, managed to gather a willing group from Trondheim, the plan was set. We were going to Ålesund to play a football match. The group consisted of swimmers, handball players, volleyball players, dancers, shooters, gymnasts, and a football player. Mia planned the whole trip, including accommodation, transportation, schedule, role allocation, and more. On Thursday morning, September 7th, we were on our way to Ålesund. We were ready and excited, split across three cars. Perhaps a bit too excited because no one took the same route…

Some took a detour via Dombås and were fascinated by all the mountains they got to see, while others took a slightly faster route. This involved taking a ferry, where mistakes could also be made, as one of the cars ended up on the wrong island. So, it might not have been that much faster after all. Getting anywhere at all wasn’t guaranteed for the car that was left with the door wide open in the middle of Molde (thanks to the Norwegians for being kind and not stealing it). After a long journey, the whole group finally reached Ålesund and checked into the Airbnb meant for 9 people. Even though we were 16 people, we managed to fit (and got to know each other better in the process). We also didn’t learn from the mistake made in Molde and left the 9-seater with the sliding door wide open (again, thanks to all the Norwegians who didn’t feel like stealing it or its contents). After all the detours we took, we had a somewhat tight schedule to make it to the game, but we arrived with plenty of time to warm up.

Now we were ready for the game at Colorline Stadium. With a proper entrance, player substitutions announcement, and VAR, the game became very fast and very serious. Another thing our team quickly noticed was a slight miscommunication that had arisen between Trondheim and Ålesund. As mentioned earlier, we in Trondheim thought that Ålesund wouldn’t field football players since we didn’t, while Ålesund thought that even though we weren’t the A-team, we could play football. Oh, how wrong one can be…

With the goalkeeper injuring their hand just 10 minutes into the first half, and starting the game with our one football player on the bench, there was only one way it could go. Even though Ålesund dominated after 45 minutes, it wasn’t possible to beat the atmosphere we had in the locker room during halftime. Singing/chanting NTNUI songs, jumping and dancing, even the Ålesund mascot couldn’t resist joining in, lifted us up for a somewhat more even second half. We all thoroughly enjoyed those grueling, sweaty, and slightly humiliating 90 minutes and have no regrets.

The rest of the evening was initially spent in the apartment before we went out to meet our opponents on something other than a football field. It was a lot of fun, and we would be happy to repeat something similar another time. Then, on our turf and under our terms