The moment the MetLife Arena, soaked in water and warned of a flash flood, waited breathlessly for arrived at the stroke of the fiftieth minute. When the man, the boisterous Norwegian sea of red wanted to score a goal, finally scored. The Erling Haaland moment; the Viking stamp on the game. He had to wait too, till he suffered the pangs of isolation through much of the first half, till he watched his colleague Martin Ødegaard fluff a delightful pass; till his grass-cutter crashed onto the base of the post.
Then came two in the space of nine minutes, an adequate cushion to douse a belated comeback from Senegal (3-2), ensuring Norway’s progress to the round of 32 in their long-awaited comeback to the World Cup. And how he and his teammates celebrated the monumental victory, performing the rowing celebration in the middle of the pitch, to cracking imitations and rippling applause from the stands.
But the Haaland moment was inevitable, even if he was passive in the first half. Lionel Messi had doled out a brace; as had Kylian Mbappe, portending a golden-boot race for the ages.
Haaland could not slip out of the race, at least for the charm of a three-horse race, at least for breaking the duopoly. And so he did with bizarre calm. A well-weighted pass from Ødegaard, splitting the centre-half pairing of Moussa Niakhaté and Kalidou Koulibaly, found him in adequate space to drill the ball ferociously past Édouard Mendy.
Haaland, with a swaggering smile, ambled to the corner flag, where he and Ødegaard stuck the pose, either side of the flag. The stand beside broke into the symphonic row, chanting Haaland’s name. They were rowing; Haaland was riding the wave.