I have heard that there was a poll some months ago and a lot choose Denmark as the most boring team participating.. That kind of ignorance and stupitity makes me angry, sad and confused.. I start to think: "What can a small country like Denmark do to make the world see the truth?".. Denmark is considered to be the brazilians of scandinavian football so to speak.. Our approach has always been to create the game.. Except for Nielsen´s Euro 92 winning team. Back then we didn´t have the players to play like we wanted.. Let me give you guys a short lecture.. Danish football didn´t turn pro untill 78.. Untill then our best players such as Simonsen(european player of the year 77) and Real Madrid´s Henning Jensen, rarely played for Denmark´s national team. When a german coach named Sepp Piontek took over in 79 he confronted a very difficult job.. There was a lot of talent in danish football but no serious organisation.. In 81 people began to see results.. We didn´t qualify to the World Cup in 82 but we made a historic result, we beat the later 82 champions Italy 3-1 in one of the qualifiers.. In Euro 84 Denmark finally made it to a final tournament.. Denmark was the fresh blow of that competition.. We didn´t get beat untill the penalty shootout in the semi final against Spain.. A game we should have and deserved to win.. Imagine it, we were seconds away from making it to the final in our first major competition.. What was extraordinary was Denmarks fresh style.. Specially in the 5-0 punishment of Jugoslavia.. 2 years later we were qualified for the World Cup.. Our first World Cup.. For any real knowledgable football fan, aged more than 15, he´ll tell you that the world hadn´t seen anything as refreshing as Denmark´s style, since Holland introduced total football back in 74.. The tournament started out excellent for the danes, we beat Scotland 1-0 in the opening match but is wasn´t untill the second game against Uruguay that the world couldn´t close it´s eyes to the sensational team led by that days most terrifying striking force in the world Michael Laudrup and Preben Elkjær Larsen.. We simply gave the 2 times World Champions a lecture like they have never seen before or after.. 6-1 and marvellous play.. In the last game of the 1st round we once again outplayed a team, this time it was the later runner up in the tournament Germany, who were more than lucky to get away with a 0-2 defeat.. In the 2nd round however the danes were stopped.. We showed our worth in the first half, came up 1-0 and should have been upfront 3-0 when Jesper Olsen made a famous mistake just before half time.. He gave Butragueno, the unbelivable Madrid striker, a golden opportunity to score.. He did and from then on the danish team fell apart.. We didn´t have the physical strength to answer back.. We got slaughtered by a much weeker team 1-5! But for us danes this was amazing anyway.. The team had shown what danish football was about: very creative, attacking minded, positive football..
Why I´m so bothered by the unfair accusion that we´re a boring team is not because of the World Cup in 86. I can´t expect everybody to remember our golden days.. Why I´m so damn bothered is because of the way we played only 4 years ago in France.. We outplayed Nigeria 4-1 and were involved in France 98´s most entertaining match against Brazil(we lost 2-3).. But the way we approached the game was so positive.. Attacking the allmighty brazilians shows an unimpressed side... I´m so sad to hear about such short memories..:depress:
On the other hand, some might have mixed up Denmark and Norway, although the two teams have nothing in common.. Denmark try to create the game while teams such as Sweden and Norway concentrate on closing down the opposition..
Why I´m so bothered by the unfair accusion that we´re a boring team is not because of the World Cup in 86. I can´t expect everybody to remember our golden days.. Why I´m so damn bothered is because of the way we played only 4 years ago in France.. We outplayed Nigeria 4-1 and were involved in France 98´s most entertaining match against Brazil(we lost 2-3).. But the way we approached the game was so positive.. Attacking the allmighty brazilians shows an unimpressed side... I´m so sad to hear about such short memories..:depress:
On the other hand, some might have mixed up Denmark and Norway, although the two teams have nothing in common.. Denmark try to create the game while teams such as Sweden and Norway concentrate on closing down the opposition..