The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 47

SUNDAY 30 MAY 1993 THE OBSERVER SPORT47 Simplicity of the Norse code $: Patrick Barclay charts the winning ways of Norwegian manager Egil Olsen, whose Wimbledon-style formula mav decide Enalanri's IMAGINE the outcry if Graham Taylor were to say, 'The basis of my philosophy is direct play the Wimbledon way, if you like. I am less concerned with passing than with penetration. In fact, it was said by Egil Olsen, the manager against whose wits Taylor's will be pitted Oslo on Wednesday night, and from a position of strength; since he took charge, Norway have lost only five of 26 matches, a record unparalleled even in the aftermath of their landmark victory over England 1981. Then, the names of Lord Nelson and Winston Churchill were invoked by an imaginative commentator. Now the Norwegians are benefiting from the inspiration of a less-celebrated Englishman, George Curtis, who got Olsen interested in coaching.

Because Olsen became very good at it; Rune Bratseth, the outstanding defender from Werder Bremen, says he has never come across a tactician as effective. If that is so, Olsen responds, part of the reason is an advantage he has over England's manager. Unlike Taylor, whose last visit to Scandinavia ended in accusations that the European Championship campaign had foundered on the long ball, Olsen is not haunted by the past. He can put his thoughts on a blank sheet of paper. 'I am he says, 'of the debate in England over styles of play.

But in Norway there is no footballing tradition so no dispute. We can look at the game objectively and take lessons from Brazil, or Germany, or England, or whoever we So why does he take so many from England? 'If you look at European club competition, it is the English who have been the most successful, and I think that is due to their way of playing not just the long ball, but the speed with which they win the ball back when an attack breaks down and get it forward again. 'As far as the national team are concerned, I understand what Graham Taylor meant when he said they have tended to fall between two stools, although I think the main requirement is to become less conservative in their training Olsen does not hide his admiration for Charles Reep, the retired wing commander from Torbay who pioneered match analysis and hit upon the Position of Maximum Opportunity (the football coaches' G-spot). He also has a high regard for the teachings of Charles Hughes, believed that was the way to a better world, but those illusions have been Olsen was combining his football with a tranquil academic career at the sports university when he encountered George Curtis not the Coventry one, but an elegant Southampton midfield player and Lilleshall graduate who had briefly managed Brighton before taking over first Rosenborg and then the Norwegian national team. 'He brought new dimensions to tactical thinking in our says Olsen, 'especially defensive organisation.

We had never heard of a flat back four and I found it exciting. It was the kick that made me study football. He has studied it ever since, using match analysis to an extent that would gladden Reep's heart, and considers his emergence from the obscurity of part-time assignments in the Norwegian lower divisions testimony to the value of video and the computer. 'I analyse, every player's performance, how we create chances and how we give them away, and this supplements my more subjective views. 'As far as attack is concerned, we have refined what you might call the Wimbledon approach, but in defence I think we are even more zone-oriented than the English.

We try not to mark at all, never to follow players who do not have the ball, only to pressure the man in possession and give cover behind. The important thing is that the players know what is expected of them and believe it is the most effective way to play. It may seem paradoxical that such an assiduous planner should read for pleasure Sartre and Camus (in French), but there is a history of the existentialist learning from football. Camus, once an Algerian goalkeeper, said that all he knew most surely about morality and the obligations of man he owed to the game. What Olsen knows most surely is that you do not mess about in your own half if you want to beat England.

A Wembley, where Kjetil Kekdals stunning drive gave them a 1-1 draw, they were lucky, as Olsen freely admits. We gave the ball away too often. But that was an exceptionally poor performance, maybe our worst of the season. We should be better in Oslo and maybe get a point without being so lucky. If our organisation, and our players, are at their best we might even win because England have no really brilliant players, even if Gazza and Piatt are very World the FA's director of coaching, whose book, The Winning Formula, is essential text for Olsen's student coaches at the sports university in Oslo.

Many here consider Hughes a Philistine, a disseminator of heresy exemplified by his argument that the Brazilians should learn directness from the English. Olsen says, 'I agree with If all this makes Olsen sound a bit of a dry stick, it is misleading. His nickname, 'Drillo', has nothing to do with any parade-ground tendencies and dates from the days when he made holes in defences. Today's organiser was yesterday's individualist, a winger with long hair, shirt out and socks down, Norway's answer to George Best. He recalls playing for Sarps-borg against Everton in the Sixties: 'I scored a magnificent goal at Goodison Park, beating three men and the goalkeeper before putting the ball in.

We led 2-1 until 15 minutes from the end. Then they got Donnish: Olsen is academic in his approach and -a Wimbledon apologist. Photograph by Mike King Scottish Cup Final: Rangers gain third major honour of the season York 'pnwftfe. exftira Frank McGhee at Wembley Crewe Alexandra 1 York City 1 McKearney (pan) 119 Swann 104 AW 22.416 York won 8-3 on panalUm after extra-Urna IN THE end it went as far as a football match can possibly go into a penalty shoot-out after extra-time. Crewe's 19-year-old midfield player Whalley missed the third spot-kick his side had to take while York missed none of their five, and the play-off to decide who goes into the Second Division was over.

York it was and justice had been done. Not everyone loves the playoffs. They are seen, justifiably by many, as a money-making lottery, an exercise in profit. Dario Gradi sees it rather differently. 'They are terrific, one of the best things to have he says.

'We are not talking amateur sport here. It 'keeps the- season alive for the uuos, supporters ana piayers. spectators love the excitement and that's what counts. Our crowds have been good this season and that js down to us being in the Giving his words greater meaning, of course, is the fact that Crewe's manager was the loser in the end. It had seemed all over in the 14th minute of the additional half-hour when York's veteran forward Swann ran on to a pass from his fellow striker Barnes and clipped it smartly home as though scoring were the easiest thing hi the world.

If it really were so simple, York should surely have won much earlier and rather more easily a match that was its own vindication of the play-offs. It was sent into the shoot-out by an incident in the last minute when the York substitute Tutill unaccountably and unnecessarily handled a cross from Crewe full-back McKearney, who promptly scored from the spot to bring the game to its climax. Cup fate on Wednesday And against Leeds: 'I went past Paul Reaney a few times. I don't think he expected to find a Norwegian so fast and good at Nor was Olsen a typical footballer off the field. Brought up in the communist stronghold of Frederikstad, he developed a political consciousness while studying French and German at Olso and became involved in the student protest movement that swept Europe.

The day before playing for Norway against Denmark in Copenhagen, he was to be found among the Marxist-Leninist demonstrators outside a World Bank meeting. But when he left university he ceased to be active. He still votes socialist and opposes entry into the EC in the belief that it works for the rich against the poor, but says: 'I have become a sofa radical. I just read and watch the news and, like many people, feel helpless. I remember we had sympathy with the Chinese revolution, and as an international (he was later replaced by Smith).

Without breaking stride and from the acutest angle, Hateley exploded a left-foot drive so quickly and accurately that it went through Snelders's legs and into the far corner of the net before the goalkeeper hit the ground. Aberdeen had begun to diminish within minutes of conceding the first goal, a telling and to this observer at least surprising indictment of their character under pressure. But the sap started to rise when Richardson scored within minutes of Jess's replacement of the ineffective Shearer. It was an untidy strike with his right foot from 18 yards, the ball deflecting from Brown and foxing Goram, who had begun to go one way then stopped in time to watch as the ball entered the net like one of Barnes Wal-lis's dam-busting bombs. Unfortunately for Aberdeen, it did not do as much damage.

Rangarai Goram; McCall. Robertson, Gough, McPherson, Brown, Murray, Ferguson. Durrant, Hateley, Hulstra (Pressley 88). Abardaam Snelders: McKimmie, Wright (Smith 63). Grant, Irvine, McLeish.

Richardson. Mason, Booth. Shearer (Jess 74), Paatelainen. Refaraa: McCluskey (Slewarton). off liunal yesterday beat Wien Cobra 3-1 will decide one of tomorrow's finalists.

In the other Pool, Scotland's Kelburne defended superbly in a one-sided game against HDM from the Hague, conceding the only goal of another fierce and furious game to van Pelt just two minutes before the interval. Highlight of the day's play was the game between the hosts Royal Leopold and Spanish champions Egara from Ter-rassa, which the Spanish won 3-2. Goal fever: Durrant of Rangers celebrates Irvine's clubmate Snelders. Photograph by Steve Gibson Kadlec dlSos ODD Genevieve Murphy at Windsor THE DEATH of 23-year-old rider Richard Adams overshadowed the Royal Windsor Horse Show yesterday. Adams, from Wokingham, was competing in the national section of the Brittany Ferries Three Day Event in the Great Park when his horse, Another Hero, hit the 14th fence and fell on him.

Emereencv services. including an air ambulance, were on tne scene within minutes and the rider mlrpn tn nearby Wexham Hospital but was dead on arrival. This was the first fatality at Windsor's annual three day event, which has been running ior 13 years-under the presidency of the Princess Royal The Princess followed vester. day's cross-country and was at the 14th fence, the Captain's Table, before Adams was taken to hospital. Some 104 horses had jumped that particular fence before Adams's eight year old gelding fell there.

The last human fatal ity in a Bitish three day event occurred at tturghley 1988 when Mark Davies was killed in a fall. Before the tragedy Andrew iloy, a member of Australia's Olympic gold medal team in Barcelona, had moved into the lead. Three Britons -Pippa Nolan on Merry Gambler, Ian Stark on Dear Hardy and Nicola Davico on Goldfinch are within five penalties as they go mm toaays iinai phase. But the Australian is unlikely to be flustered by their proximity. He has ridden Snow Gum in rour snow jumping contests this year and won them all.

Nolan's fine round on Merry vramoier iook her into second place ahead of Stark on Dear Hardy. Stark had descriheH his mount, a nine-year-old son of tne stainon Lord Nelson, as 'very talented with a Murphy-type jump'. The horse proved that point with a fair imitation of the Scot's Olympic partner, Murphy Himself, when he took a spectacular leap into water at the 12th of 28 fences. Though 'jumped-off, when Dear Hardy took a flying leap at a cross-country fence in Corn-bury Park last month, Stark has wonderful natural balance. The same is true of New Zealand's dual Olympic champion Mark Todd, who rode another classic round on General Knowledge to move up from 19th to 8th place.

There was one brief moment when General Knowledge looked like toppling over in the second water, but Todd knows how to keep a horse balanced and General Knowledge soared over the exit fence. Others were less fortunate at the Prince of Wales' Pond. Mary Thomson, lying second overnight after the dressage, took a ducking there when King Basil hit the fence on the way into the water and stumbled on landing. She almost stayed with him, but the water claimed her in the end. Leslie Law had a much nastier fall at the same fence when First Cruise, who looked as though he was about to grind to a halt in front of the rails into water, scraped over it.

The Princess Royal looked on in concern while the horse's head was held above water and, when the gelding eventually struggled to his feet, as he hobbled into the horse ambulance. The horse was then sent to the Royal Veterinary College, Potters Bar, for X-ray and further examination. It had always contained an enthusiasm that shamed most top clubs who appear here on the glamour occasions, including Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup Final. The great stadium was more than two-thirds empty but the noise and passion compensated for the empty seats. Crewe almost gave it a sensational start when in the first minute winger Ward, spotting keeper Kiely off his line, hoisted an ambitious lob that floated only just wide.

But from then on they were largely on the receiving end and had to be grateful for their skipper, central defender Evans, who had been a Wembley wjnt; -rier a coupte -of years iqrquay in a piay-o: spread the cloak of his compo sure around his young colleagues and it was as well he did. York were unlucky not to score in the 19th minute when Canham's speed took him past McKearney to hit the bar and that sent the standard for most of the rest of the first half. Once again they should have gone ahead in the 34th minute when their top scorer, Barnes, shot across goal with no one near enough to supply the merest of touches that would have been enough to put them in front. York certainly deserved a goal from a move good enough to have won any match played at Wembley in the past few years. Barnes cutely back-heeled to send McCarthy past the redoubtable Evans, only for him to hit the post.

But with extra-time looming, both sides declined to make the mistake that would have settled it before all the drama that was to come. take, no matter what the position or role, this man knows what he is talking The presence of Hoddle and Ardiles has inevitably increased expectations of Swindon and West Bromwich Albion wins. But what chance of Leicester and Port Vale turning the tables on them? Leicester, who face Swindon tomorrow, are encouraged by the form of Julian Joachim, their England Under-1 9 striker who has scored 18 goals since his debut in October. Joachim, who scored an outstanding winning goal in the first leg against Portsmouth as a substitute will start tomorrow. There can be no doubt he has the right temperament.

As manager Brian Little says: 'AH strikers at this club have had to live in the shadow of Gary Lineker and Alan Smith. Julian is just about the only one who has broken free of Port Vale, who play West Brommich Albion today, have already experienced what it is like to be Wembley winners they picked up the Autoglass trophy there last weekend. Their manager, John Rudge, says: 'The match against West Brom is going to be more tense than the Autoglass final, but I think we've got one or two big occasion players and the temperament to handle the Glenn Gibbons at Parkhead Aberdeen 1 Richardson 78 Rangers 2 Irvine (og) 23. Hateley 43 AW 50. 715 Hoddle finds the right edge Jason Tomas says the languid Spurs hero has transformed Swindon with tough talking WALTER SMITH wore his sense of history like a luminous bib as he became only the fourth Rangers manager to lead the team to the coveted treble of League Championship, League Cup and now Scottish Cup.

The impressive successor to Graeme Souness at Ibrox jigged along with his players on the Celtic Park Ditch snrplu tht accomplishment of the third leg was an tne sweeter tor taking olace at the home of thpir bitter rivals while an old joke was resurrected in the stands. Namely, will Rangers at Aber deen to keep? The Pittodrie side were runners-UD in all three nf th national competitions, and their status was explained by the alarming slump in their commitment after thpv hA UHU I.U11- ceded an ourranpmiciu unfortunate opening goal at a time when thev bring their manager, Willie Miller, his first trophy as a manager. Thev fell further kohJ before having their nrnsnects resuscitated bv Richardson's counter with 12 minutes remaining. But there was a nrp- ordination about Rangers' tri- Inadvertent strike against hesitated and allowed Irvine to lunge back towards him. His shot was clearly miscued and the ball was heading back across the face of the goal but came off Irvine at a right angle and passed Snelders on his left.

Manager Willie Miller had made the audacious decision to play three of his four strikers even if Paatelainen was used in a flexible, often back-tracking role and his team threatened to sweep Rangers away in their early skirmishes. There was a zestful urgency about the Pittodrie side's surges which allowed their fans to dream of the cup's return to the North-East for the first time since 1990. Grant had actually managed to drive the ball against the outside of a post from wide on the right before the match was one minute old. That sinking feeling may have begun to settle on those goals in the fourth minute. Burd, at a penalty corner, made it 2-0 in the 29th minute before Hobley completed her hat-trick with substitute Adey completing the scoring.

Havant, hosting the Men's Division, beat Viso from Portugal 5-0 in their opening game. Then they defeated Stockholm 6-1, with Williams and Garcia each scoring twice and Avery and Giles completing the scoring. Havant remain on course for tomorrow's final and their ambition to reclaim the A who had travelled far, however, as Goram twice produced the form which brought him three major player-of-the-year awards. And there was something mildly sinister about the ease with which McCall once found Hateley out on the left, the striker's header across to Durrant ending with the latter's lifeless attempt to capitalise and McKimmie sweeping up. Irvine's aberration was conclusive evidence that the good fortune which Rangers' diligence tends to bring had not yet packed for the holidays.

Memories of Nisbet's eccentric strike against Club Brugge in the European Cup and Ferguson's unlikely deflected goal against CSKA Moscow in the same tournament flitted into the mind. There was nothing controversial, dubious or lucky about the goal with which Hateley doubled the favourites' advantage just before the interval. It was, however, pretty exceptional. Durrant's pass along the ground allowed the Englishman to go past Wright with an ease which should worry those who champion the defender's cause Division place for the English champions which they so disappointingly lost last year in Amsterdam. Ulhenhorst, European champions from Germany, remain on course for their sixth successive victory with a 2-0 win against Racing Club of France in a bruising, ill-tempered game.

Five players received temporary suspensions in a second half punctuated with stoppages. Today's game between Ulhenhorst and Durkheimer the German champions, who umph which became evident the moment the fates conspired to bring about their lead midway through the first half. A second strike by lightning could not have been more damaging and certainly seemed less likely than the own-goal bogy which afflicted the men from the North-East in a second cup final this season against Rangers. In the League Cup showdown at Hampden Park last October, it was Smith who had turned a header past Snelders. This time the young defender watched from the bench as his clubmate Irvine became the latest victim.

It has to be said that Irvine contributed to his nightmare by miskicking McCall's deep cross from the left, sending the ball straight to Murray, isolated on the right edge of the six-yard area. Murray, who had demonstrated a lack of control on several occasions earlier, this time final. Western never looked back after McDonald put them ahead in the 21st minute. Her second came eight minutes into the second half with Murray, Wendy Fraser and Sue Fraser completing the scoring. Slough, driven relentlessly by their captain Karen Brown, who had another outstanding game, beat Cardiff 5-0 and face European champions Amsterdam this morning with confidence.

It was Brown who sent Pottow down the right to cross for the first of Hobley's three THIS weekend's First and Second Division promotion play-off finals can be summed up as the Ossie Ardiles-Glenn Hoddle show, especially to football purists. Ardiles and Hoddle have, indeed, implanted some of the skill they displayed as Tottenham midfield colleagues into the West Bromwich Albion and Swindon teams they now manage. They have also disproved the old theory about the most talented players not generally making the most effective managers. It seems particularly surprising that Hoddle is doing so; but his public image as a player is misleading. Certainly, not many Hoddle fans would recognise him from the picture that Leeds United's David Kerslake paints.

Kerslake, who played under both Ardiles and Hoddle at Swindon, says: 'Ossie was a bit more relaxed and got closer to the players than Ossie did. In training, Glenn put the emphasis on set exercises and drills; with Ossie, it was five-a-sides. Ossie was not one for rucking players at half-time, whereas Glenn could really lose his Hoddle was often criticised for not taking on enough defensive responsibilities. But Kerslake says: 'He felt my defending could be improved and spent a lot of time working with me on this. Make no mis RainrDpairDtt Western on tlhe Malik THERE were wins for Slough and Glaseow Western nn t-he Second dav nf hnrkev's ffnm.

en's A Division of the European uub Championship and in the Men's Division for Havant. Each collected their second suc cessive victory, writes Bill Colwill. In Brussels, Glasgow West ern with a 5-0 win against Stade Francais, McDonald scoring twice need only a draw against Russelsheimer from Germany this morning to reach their fifth successive European.