Denmark national football team
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The Denmark national football team is controlled by the Danish Football Association and has represented the country of Denmark in international football competitions since 1908. The team has been a solidly competitive side in international football since the mid-1980s, with the triumph in the 1992 European Championships (Euro 1992) tournament as its most prominent victory.
As of July 2006, Denmark is ranked 17th in the FIFA World Rankings. In the qualification to Euro 2008, Denmark are placed in Group F with Liechtenstein, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, Spain and the archrivals from Sweden.
Teams
Apart from the men's senior team, Denmark competes with a women's national team, and has teams at various youth levels for both men and women, most prominently the under-21 national team. Additionally, there is a league national team, or B-team, of the best players from the domestic Danish Superliga, playing official games in the winter break of the national league, as well as an old-boys national team. Historically, the team competed in the Summer Olympics until and including the 1988 tournament, whereafter olympic games count as under-21 national games.History
Amateur years
Denmark won an unofficial victory in the 1906 Intercalated OlympicsThe Danish Football Association (DBU) decided not to send a competing team, so instead the Copenhagen Football Association (KBU), sent an unofficial team which won the tournament under the team name of Denmark., and finished second in their first official tournament, the 1908 Olympics, an achievement copied four years later in the 1912 Olympics. Although Denmark figured fairly prominently in the pre-World Cup era, international success would elude them for years from the first World Cup in 1930 and forward. Despite the country's ability to produce outstanding footballing talent, a bronze medal in the 1948 Olympics was the only result of note in 50 years. As football remained an amateur pastime, most of the best Danish footballers moved abroad to make a livingBirger B. Peitersen, [Danish Football], Denmark.dk, and foreign-based professionals were barred from the national team, in common with other Scandinavian countries.In the 1960s, Denmark had a revival with a third set of olympic silver at the 1960 Olympics, though the most notable performance was fourth place in the Euro 1964. Denmark took advantage of a comparatively easy draw, as they beat Malta, Albania and Luxembourg before losing to the USSR in the semi-final and Hungary in the bronze match. The national team rule of amateurism was abolished in 1971, which led to a vast improvement in the Danish team's performances. In 1978, professional football was introduced to the Danish leagues, which prompted the first sponsorship of the national team by Danish brewery Carlsberg, enabling the team to hire full-time coach Sepp Piontek from Germany in 1979.
Danish Dynamite
In the 1982 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Denmark finished with 8 points from as many games, including a 3-1 win against eventual World Cup champions Italy, but Denmark failed to qualify for the final tournament despite the impressive result. Qualification for the Euro 1984 saw the team beat England at Wembley Stadium when Allan Simonsen converted a penalty kick for a 1-0 win. Denmark qualified for their first international tournament since 1964, and the team was dubbed "Danish Dynamite" in a competition for the official Danish Euro 1984 song. Denmark's participation ended in the semi-final when the team lost on penalties to Spain, most remembered for Preben Elkjær's penalty miss, his shorts torn apart. Following the strong performance at the finals, the name of "Danish Dynamite" became a mainstay for the following decade of Danish national team football under coach Piontek.Denmark made their first World Cup appearance in the 1986 FIFA World Cup, and with the attacking duo of Michael Laudrup and Preben Elkjær the team surprised the world, sweeping the group, including a 6-1 trashing of Uruguay. In the second round Denmark once again faced Spain, and once more Denmark lost out. The team received a trashing of their own, losing 5-1, including four goals by Emilio Butragueño. The first Spanish goal was caused by a miss-timed backpass by Jesper Olsen to Butragueño, an unfortunate action subsequently coined as "a real Jesper Olsen" (en rigtig Jesper Olsen). The phrase would live on for 13 years when an identical backpass was carried out by Jesper Grønkjær to Filippo Inzaghi in Grønkjær's 1999 debut game.() Rasmus Bech, "Den aften, da Jesper Olsen blev glemt", Politiken article, March 28, 1999
After the glory days of 1986 came a period of transition with faltering results. The Euro 1988 tournament ended in early defeat as Denmark lost the group games to Spain, Germany, and Italy. When Denmark failed to qualify for the 1990 FIFA World Cup Sepp Piontek was replaced by his assistant coach Richard Møller Nielsen.
1992 European Champions
Denmark's finest hour in the international competitions came in the Euro 1992. The Danes initially failed to qualify, as they finished second behind Yugoslavia in their qualifying group, and the star of the team Michael Laudrup subsequently decided to quit the national team over tactical differences with coach Richard Møller Nielsen. However, due to international sanctions resulting from the Yugoslav wars, Yugoslavia was barred from the tournament, and Denmark entered as the second-placed team in its group. Contrary to popular belief the team did not rally home from seaside vacations to compete, as the majority of players were already assembled to play a friendly match with the CIS when Denmark officially got the spot at the tournament.Peter Schmeichel with Egon Balsby, "Schmeichel: The Autobiography", Virgin, 1999, ISBN 0753504448, pp. 97-98 of Danish version (ISBN 87-7901-122-5)Relying heavily on goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel and his defense, as well as creative spark Brian Laudrup, the Danish team created one of the biggest surprises in the event's history, as they went on to win the European Championship trophy under coach Møller Nielsen's defensive playing style. Advancing from the group stage ahead of England and France, Denmark beat the Dutch defending Euro 1988 champions on penalties in the semi-final, and with the 2-0 win against reigning 1990 FIFA World Cup champions Germany in the final, Denmark had won its first trophy.
Following the Euro 1992 win, Michael Laudrup revived his national team career in 1993, but Denmark saw mixed results as they failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, before securing a deserved King Fahd Cup win, beating Maradona's Copa América champions Argentina in 1995. As defending champions at the Euro 1996, Denmark disappointed with a lacklustre performance and the team was eliminated in the group stage. As controversy had occurred over the prolonging of Richard Møller Nielsen's contract in fall 1995, including a strained relationship with the press, he was let go. The new coach was the sympathetic Swede Bo "Bosse" Johansson, who gave the team a more offensive strategy, and the 1998 FIFA World Cup saw the revival of the Danish team, starring both Laudrup brothers in their last international campaign. The Danes went out with a beautiful 2-3 quarter-final defeat to later silver medalists Brazil. Following yet another disappointing European Championship in the Euro 2000, with many players selected for the squad despite injuries and lacking form, "Bosse" decided not to prolong his contract.
The Olsen Gang
The new coach would be the former national team captain from the successful team of the 1980s, Morten Olsen, and the team was quickly dubbed the Olsen Gang, resembling the Danish movies series of a man with a plan, a name which was similarly used of the Danish team when Olsen captained it. With Olsen at the helm, Denmark's tactics shifted to an even more attacking style, with an emphasis on the wingers, and Olsen made the point of only using players on form in the team.
Denmark qualified both for the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the Euro 2004, but despite impressive results in the group stage in both tournaments, especially the 2-0 win against reigning World Cup winners France in 2002, Denmark saw defeat in the first knock-out round in both tournaments. The Euro 2004 will be best remembered for an incident in the game with Italy, where Italian Francesco Totti was caught on camera spitting on Danish player Christian Poulsen, as well as the joint elimination of Italy by Denmark and Sweden in the last group stage match when the two teams drew 2-2 following a Swedish goal in the 81st minute.
Olsen's reign of the Danish national team has been the most successful in the time of professional coaches. As of March 2006, Morten Olsen has a winning share of 58,7%, and with three points for a victory and one for a draw, Olsen has an average of 2,03 points per game.[Morten Olsen coach profile] at DBU.dk In comparison, Richard Møller Nielsen had a 54,8% winning share and a 1,89 point average[Richard Møller Nielsen coach profile] at DBU.dk, and especially Olsen's attitude of taking every friendly match seriously have led to many good results, one notable example being a friendly 4-1 win over England in 2005, which sent England packing with their worst loss since 1980, and was a repetition of the Danish 3-2 win on English ground at Old Trafford in 2003.
For the 2006 World Cup qualification, Denmark was paired with, among others, 2002 World Cup bronze winners Turkey and Euro 2004 champions Greece competing for only one guaranteed spot at the final tournament. Following a poor start of the qualification, Denmark only had 9 points for 7 games, and were trailing both Turkey, by 3 points, and surprise leaders Ukraine, by 6 points. This meant that Denmark needed Turkey to lose points in the final 5 games in order for Denmark to clinch the 2nd place of the group and one last chance to qualify via two play-off games. Indeed, had Turkey lost points to Albania in their last game, Denmark would have gone through, but instead Denmark had to settle for 3rd place in the group and a longer summer break.
Supporters
Apart from the national team, Denmark is equally famous for its traveling fans, known as roligans. The movement emerged during the 1980s as the declared opposition to hooliganism. The goal of the roligan movement is calm, yet cheerful, support during the matches, as rolig means calm in the Danish language. The roligans have since developed an image of easy-going nature and rabid support, and they were collectively given the FIFA FairPlay Award at the 1984 European Championships() [Historie] at RoliganKlubben.dk. Just before the 1986 World Cup, the roligan movement was organized in order to support the national team at the tournament.
Stadium
- For stadium history, see Parken Stadium.
On September 9 1992 the rebuilt Idrætsparken, now called Parken, the biggest venue in Denmark of 42,000 seats, was opened with a 1-2 defeat by Germany. Parken has since been the sole stadium of the men's senior national team matches, with a contract on all men's senior matches until 2007. Meagre spectator support at some matches, which have attracted from 22,000 down to below 10,000 for the April 17, 2002 friendly 3-1 win over Israel, has caused speculation that certain friendly matches might be moved to other stadiums around the country after 2007. In 2006 the Parken monopoly of national team matches was broken, for a May 27 2006 friendly game at NRGi Park, with World Cup 2006 participants Paraguay the opponent, almost 19,000 of the 22,227 tickets were sold within the first hour of sale.() Christian Bové, ["Landskamp for fulde huse i Århus"], TV 2 (Denmark), February 24, 2006
International record
World Cup
European Championship |
Confederations CupSummer Olympic
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Players
The players are freely chosen by manager Morten Olsen, and are normally assembled, from their respective club teams, at Hotel Marina in Vedbæk for a week-long training camp preluding the upcoming game, which is typically scheduled for wednesday or saturday evenings.
Payment
Each player in the national team receives a set amount of money per game, including bonuses for games won and qualification for the European Championship and World Cup tournaments. Through the years, these money prizes have gone from around €1,340 for a game win in 1987 and around €26,800 for the Euro 1988 participation alone, to around €67,000 for the 1998 World Cup and up to €107,000 for the 2002 World Cup participations, per player.() Jan Heintze, "Tyve år på toppen", Cicero, 2002, ISBN 87-7714-459-7 Values are translated from Danish kroner. Currently, the win bonus for friendly games are €1,340 per player, with start money for an away game at €670 per player, while a home win before a sellout crowd of 42,000, can possibly wield €7,600 per player, including the win bonus, due to spectator-dependant bonuses. In the qualification matches for the international tournaments, the bonuses are increased for both home and away wins, with a bonus also being paid for away draws.[Players bonus] at DBU.dkCurrent squad
The current squad, according to DBU.() [Truppen 2006] at DBU.dk All match statistic are updated after the latest national team match, a May 31, 2006 friendly match against France.
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