DENAMRK 1-0 SWEDEN
"FC Solidarity" qualify for the World Cup
When the fixture list for Denmark was announced for the 2010 World Cup campaign most Danish football experts agreed that Morten Olsen's troops were destined for another barren spell in terms of qualifying for a major championship; away fixtures to Hungary and Portugal didn't bring much hope of getting the campaign off to a great start.
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Denmark goalscorer Jacob Poulsen
Danish brilliance has been in short supply ever since the Laudrup brothers announced their goodbyes to the game and without the luxury of a glut of talent, Denmark have usually relied on the sum of the team's parts to produce their "total football". This was also the case on Saturday as the Danes managed to qualify for their fourth World Cup through a hard-fought 1-0 win against Sweden in a packed Parken stadium in Copenhagen
For football experts in general it must be the biggest surprise since Denmark won the 1992 European Championships that Olsen's team, against all odds, have qualified for the 2010 World Cup.
Denmark, whose previous World Cup appearances were in 1986, 1998 and 2002 are now on the way to their first major tournament since the 2004 European Championship. Indeed, Olsen's tenacious attacking tactics and wealth of experience in the end paid off as Denmark qualified in style, finishing top of their group and unbeaten. This is indeed one of Olsen's biggest achievements. Proud and unabashedly patriotic, Olsen, the first Dane to earn 100 caps, captained his country on their memorable FIFA World Cup debut in 1986 and, as coach, led them back to the game's greatest stage 16 years later. And now against all odds he is ready for yet another World Cup.
Olsen has had to reshuffle his squad extensively during this qualifying campaign because of injuries to several key players. No less than 35 players were given a chance in the first six qualifying matches, which would have been a major obstacle even for some of the biggest football nations in the world. At the same time many of the coach's key performers like Dennis Rommedahl, Jon Dahl Tomasson, Soren Larsen and Christian Poulsen have not been able to establish themselves as regular performers in their respective clubs across Europe during the last two seasons.
Many critics in Denmark reckoned this was the worst Danish team for 30 years when the qualifying campaign started with a low-key 0-0 draw away to Hungary 12 months ago. As a result, both Olsen and his team were in the line of fire from the Danish media throughout the qualifying campaign despite their promising results.
For a nation that enjoyed the scintillating Danish Dynamite side of the 1980s, then triumph in the 1992 European Championships, followed by progress to the 1998 World Cup quarter-finals, and which had feasted on generations of superstar players from Olsen himself and Allan Simonsen through the Laudrup brothers Michael and Brian to goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, it was easy to see why the current team was scorned.
The criticism from the press was so intense that the players, inspired by captain Tomasson, decided to boycott the media in the wake of the sensational 3-2 win against Portugal in September 2008. Olsen's insistence on sticking with the 4-3-3 formation has been at the centre of criticism. The system is applied by some of the biggest clubs in European football like Ajax or Barcelona, but Denmark is certainly not Barcelona and while "Pep" Guardiola may select his squad from a host of world-class players, this is certainly not the case for Olsen.
For years and years social harmony has been one of the Danish squad's most remarkable strengths. Nobody has been bigger than the rest but this fact has not necessarily been the truth during this campaign. The reason is Nicklas Bendtner. The Arsenal striker has been more than a handful to tackle not only for Olsen but also for the rest of the squad. As such it was no surprise that Martin Jorgensen took a swipe at Bendtner's poor attitude towards his team-mates in his recently published book "The Professionals".
"The way that he is and with his confidence, it is probably his usual way of behaving. He probably also behaves that way when he is at home and not playing football. But he has a lot to learn. He doesn't understand why there must be certain rules when 23 players are gathered together in a squad. There must be room for types like him in any squad but if there was somebody like him with the same abilities but without the attitude, that is what I would prefer," Jorgensen writes.
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Denmark celebrate after winning the qualifying match against Sweden
Olsen who himself was captain of the Danish side that in the middle of the 1980s was named "Olsen-banden" (The Olsen-gang) failed to comment on the criticism directed at Bendtner but underlined after the match against Sweden that his team was indeed 'FC Solidarity'. "This team has qualified for the World Cup. We have a bunch of players that stick together no matter what happens. I have players in this side that stick to the agreements that we make before the match and therefore nobody has been able to stick the knife to us," Olsen said.
It was a very fitting end to the qualifying campaign that it was one of the team's key performers, Jacob Poulsen from AGF Aarhus playing his trade in the Danish domestic league, the SAS Liga, who was going to put the final nail in the Swedish coffin after Denmark had dominated greater parts of the match. Poulsen, who decided to return home to the domestic league after a disappointing spell with Heerenveen, has been one of the revelations in a side that has gone from strength to strength during the campaign.
As Olsen in the previous years have had to rely heavily on many of the players earning their bread and butter outside of the Danish borders, the SAS Liga has now reached a level where Danish sides are not automatically underdogs to teams from the German Bundesliga or the Dutch Eresdivisie. This has been one of the key elements for Olsen in this campaign. Whenever the foreign stars failed to perform due to lack of form or injuries, Olsen has always been able to select a proper replacement from the Danish SAS Liga.
But while the party following the match against Sweden still hasn't stopped, a few worries might have crept into Olsen's mind as the clock now slowly unwinds for the selection of the squad. Jon Dahl Tomasson, Martin Jorgensen and Dennis Rommedahl have at no time during this qualifying campaign proven that they are fit to perform at this level but nobody expects Olsen to bypass players who during his reign as national coach have starred as key performers. Indeed it seems unlikely that Denmark will bring back the World Cup trophy to Danish soil in July 2010, but still Olsen has once again put Denmark solidly on the world football map.
