Norway just threw the greatest celebration ever for a team eliminated in the World Cup quarterfinals
At every World Cup, there are a few teams that become tournament darlings. This year it was the likes of Cape Verde, Scotland and Norway.
Of those three, none made a deeper run than Norway. And while it came up short against England this past weekend, the team returned home like the boat-rowing (fine, technically sailing) conquering heroes its ancestors once were.
And, boy, did they ever get one hell of a parade.
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The team returned home this week — taxidermied raccoons in hand — after a 2-1 loss in extra time to the Three Lions.
Of course, even with star striker Erling Haaland, the team getting to the quarterfinals was a huge achievement for the Scandinavian nation, and their best World Cup performance ever, topping a pair of Round of 16 appearances in 1938 and 1998.
Clearly, it meant a lot, because people turned out in droves to cheer on the team in Oslo as they left the Royal Palace.
Again, I feel like this has to be reiterated: this is for a team knocked out in the quarterfinals.
We've seen championship parades here in the States that didn't draw crowds like that, and there are fewer than six million people in the entire country!
World Cup success is always relative. For some nations, just making it is a victory.
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But if that's Norway after bowing out in the quarterfinals, I don't think they could've handled going much further.
Oslo would be bursting at the seams if they made it to the semifinals, and who knows what could've happened had they pulled off a miracle and won it all.
I think we'd wake up the next morning and Norway would be missing on the map. There'd just be a void north of Denmark and west of Sweden.
It's probably safe to say that with Haaland only in his mid-twenties, the Norwegians will be back in action at the next World Cup in 2030.
And maybe they'll end up having reason for an even wilder celebration.