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Denmark

Nickname	Danish Dynamite, Olsen Banden (The Olsen Gang)
Association	Danish Football Association (Dansk Boldspil-Union)
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Morten Olsen, (2000-)
Asst coach	Peter Bonde, (2006-) Torben Storm, (2006-)
Captain	Thomas Helveg
Most caps	Peter Schmeichel (129)
Top scorer	Poul "Tist" Nielsen (52)
Home Stadium	Parken Stadium
FIFA code	DEN
FIFA ranking	22
Highest FIFA ranking	3 (May 1997)
Lowest FIFA ranking	27 (May 1998)
Elo ranking	8
Highest Elo ranking	1 (1912-1920)
Home kit 　 Away kit
First international Denmark 9 - 0 France B (London, England; 19 October 1908)
Largest win Denmark 17 - 1 France A (London, England; 22 October 1908)
Worst defeat Official: Germany 8 - 0 Denmark (Breslau, Germany; 16 May 1937) Unofficial: Denmark 1-11 Basque Country (Denmark; 29 August 1937)
World Cup
Appearances	3 (First in 1986)
Best result	Quarterfinals, 1998
European Championship
Appearances	7 (First in 1964)
Best result	Winners, 1992

Olympic medal record
Men's Football
Silver	1908 London	Team
Silver	1912 Stockholm	Team
Silver	1960 Rome	Team
Bronze	1948 London	Team

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.

In the qualification to Euro 2008, Denmark are placed in Group F with Liechtenstein, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, Spain and the archrivals from Sweden.

Contents 1 Teams 2 History 2.1 Amateur years 2.2 Danish Dynamite 2.3 1992 European Champions 2.4 The Olsen Gang 3 Supporters 4 Stadium 5 International record 5.1 World Cup 5.2 European Championship 5.3 Confederations Cup 5.4 Summer Olympic 6 Players 6.1 Payment 6.2 Current squad 6.3 Former notable players 7 Managers 8 See also 8.1 Past squads and campaigns 9 Footnotes 10 Literature 11 External links

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 Olympics^[1], 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 living^[2], 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.^[2]

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^[2]. 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.^[3]

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 trailed Yugoslavia in their qualifying group. Michael Laudrup, the star of the team, decided to quit the national team during the qualification matches, following 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^[2] 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.^[4]

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. The following years Denmark saw mixed results as they failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, before securing a King Fahd Cup win, beating 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 poor form, "Bosse" decided not to prolong his contract.

The Olsen Gang

The new coach turned out to be the former national team captain from the successful team of the 1980s, Morten Olsen, and the team was quickly dubbed the "Olsen Gang", a reference to the series of Danish movies based around the main character Egon Olsen and his genius (criminal) plans. The nickname was also used for the Danish team when Olsen captained it. Under Olsen, who brought with him great experience from among others Ajax Amsterdam, Denmark's tactics shifted to an even more attacking style, with an emphasis on the speedy wingers available to him at the time, namely Jesper Grønkjær and Dennis Rommedahl, and Olsen stressed the importance of only using fit and on-form players in the team - a principle that he's later bene forced to go back on somewhat, as the player material available in such a relatively small nation doesn't always provide many realistic options.

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 were defeated in the first post-group stage round in both tournaments. The Euro 2004 will be best remembered for an incident in the game with Italy, where Italian star Francesco Totti was caught on camera by a danish cameraman, spitting on Danish player Christian Poulsen, and 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, making for the exact and famous result that would see the Italians eliminated.

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.^[5] In comparison, Richard Møller Nielsen had a 54,8% winning share and a 1,89 point average^[6], and especially Olsen's attitude of taking every friendly match seriously has led to many good results, one notable example being a friendly 4-1 win over England in 2005, the worst loss for the English team since 1980 and a repetition of the impressive 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 were trailing both Turkey and surprise leaders Ukraine. Denmark needed Turkey to lose points in the final 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 they had to settle for 3rd place in the group and a longer summer break.

After failing to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, coach Olsen considered leaving the job, having received several offers from club teams, but decided to stay and extended his contract until after the 2010 FIFA World Cup, spurred on by his and the team's popularity among the Danish population^[7].

Supporters

Main article: Roligan

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^[8]. 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.

From a 2-1 friendly win over Germany in 1912, to a 0-2 Euro 1992 qualification loss to Yugoslavia in 1990, Denmark played most of their home games at Idrætsparken in Copenhagen, a total of 232 games, of which 125 was won.^[9] During this time, various games were spread out across the country, with matches played in other parts of the country, like at Aalborg Stadion in Aalborg, NRGi Park (then known as Atletion) in Århus, and Fionia Park (then known as Odense Stadium) in Odense, Odense Stadium being the main venue for national games for a year after the abandonment of Idrætsparken.

On September 9, 1992 the rebuilt Idrætsparken, now called Parken, the biggest venue in Denmark with 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, caused speculation that certain friendly matches might be moved to other stadiums around the country after 2007. In 2006 Parken's 13-year monopoly on 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.^[10] The game was a big success, support-wise, and another game at a new venue followed on September 1 at Brøndby Stadium. However, this match only attracted 13,186 spectators (in a 26,000 capacity stadium) and was deemed a relative failure. The reasons are thought to be a combination of the poor, rainy weather, and the fact that this stadium is located on the outskirts of Copenhagen, and as such does not attract a new demographic, as the travel distances and times to Parken are not much greater, if not lesser, for most of the population.

International record

[edit] World Cup 1930 to 1954 - Did not enter 1958 - Did not qualify 1962 - Did not enter 1966 to 1982 - Did not qualify 1986 - Round 2 1990 - Did not qualify 1994 - Did not qualify 1998 - Quarterfinals 2002 - Round 2 2006 - Did not qualify [edit] European Championship 1960 - Did not qualify 1964 - Fourth place 1968 to 1980 - Did not qualify 1984 - Semifinals 1988 - Round 1 1992 - Champions 1996 - Round 1 2000 - Round 1 2004 - Quarterfinals

[edit] Confederations Cup 1992 - Did not enter 1995 - Winners 1997 to 2005 - Did not enter [edit] Summer Olympic 1900 - Was not invited 1904 - Was not invited 1906 - Did not enter/Winners[1] 1908 - Runners-up 1912 - Runners-up 1920 - First round 1924-1936 - Did not compete 1948 - Third place 1952 - Second round 1956 - Did not compete 1960 - Runners-up 1964 - Did not qualify 1968 - Did not compete 1972 - Quarter final 1976 - Did not qualify 1980 - Did not compete 1984 - Did not qualify 1988 - Did not qualify[11]

Players

See also: List of Denmark international footballers

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, typically played on a Wednesday or Saturday evening.

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.^[12] 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-dependent 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.^[13]

Current squad

See also: Denmark national football team season 2006

The current squad, according to DBU.^[14] All match statistic are updated after the latest national team match, a October 10, 2006 4-0 Euro 2008 qualifier win against Liechtenstein.

Pos. Player DoB/Age Caps Goals Club GK Casper Ankergren 1979-11-09 0 0 Brøndby IF GK Jesper Christiansen 1978-04-24 6 0 F.C. Copenhagen GK Thomas Sørensen[15] 1976-06-12 58 0 Aston Villa DF Daniel Agger 1984-12-12 9 1 Liverpool DF Jan Kristiansen 1981-08-04 8 0 1. FC Nürnberg DF Lars Jacobsen 1979-09-20 8 0 F.C. Copenhagen DF Martin Laursen 1977-07-26 41 1 Aston Villa DF Michael Gravgaard 1978-04-03 11 4 F.C. Copenhagen DF Niclas Jensen 1974-08-17 53 0 Fulham DF Thomas Helveg 1971-06-24 103 2 M'gladbach MF Christian Poulsen 1980-02-28 43 2 Sevilla FC MF Claus Jensen 1977-04-29 46 8 Fulham MF Daniel Jensen 1979-06-25 24 1 Werder Bremen MF Michael Krohn-Dehli 1983-06-06 1 0 Ajax Amsterdam MF Michael Silberbauer[16] 1981-07-07 8 1 F.C. Copenhagen MF Rasmus Würtz 1983-09-18 3 0 Aalborg BK MF Thomas Kahlenberg 1983-03-20 11 1 AJ Auxerre FW Dennis Rommedahl 1978-07-22 62 13 Charlton Athletic FW Dennis Sørensen 1981-05-24 1 0 FC Midtjylland FW Jesper Bech 1982-05-25 0 0 Esbjerg fB FW Jon Dahl Tomasson 1976-08-29 85 43 VfB Stuttgart FW Martin Jørgensen 1975-10-06 76 12 ACF Fiorentina FW Nicklas Bendtner[17] 1988-01-16 3 2 Birmingham City FW Peter Løvenkrands 1980-01-29 16 0 FC Schalke 04

Former notable players

See also: Denmark national football team statistics#Players

Notable former players of the Danish national team, arranged after year of debut.

1900s-1920s: Harald Bohr 1908-1910 Vilhelm Wolfhagen 1908-1917 Sophus "Krølben" 1908-1919 Nils Middelboe 1908-1920 Poul "Tist" Nielsen 1910-1925 Paul Berth 1911-1922 Michael Rohde 1915-1931 Pauli Jørgensen 1925-1939 1930s-1940s: Arne Sørensen 1937-1946 Karl Aage Hansen 1943-1948 Knud Lundberg 1943-1956 Carl Aage Præst 1945-1949 Poul Petersen 1946-1952 Axel Pilmark 1947-1950

1950s-1960s: Bent Hansen 1958-1965 Henning Enoksen 1958-1966 Ole Madsen 1958-1969 Harald Nielsen 1959-1960 Johnny Hansen 1965-1978 Henning Munk Jensen 1966-1978 1970s: Per Røntved 1970-1982 Morten Olsen 1970-1989 Henning Jensen 1972-1980 Allan Simonsen 1972-1986 Jens Jørn Bertelsen 1976-1987 Frank Arnesen 1977-1987 Preben Elkjær 1977-1988 Søren Lerby 1978-1989

1980s: Ivan Nielsen 1980-1989 John Sivebæk 1982-1992 Michael Laudrup 1982-1998 Kim Vilfort 1983-1996 Henrik Andersen 1985-1994 Lars Olsen 1986-1996 Flemming Povlsen 1987-1994 Brian Laudrup 1987-1998 Peter Schmeichel 1987-2001 Jan Heintze 1987-2002 1990s: Stig Tøfting 1993-2002 Ebbe Sand 1998-2004 Thomas Gravesen 1998-2006

Managers

Main article: Denmark national football team statistics#Managers

Ever since the Danish Football Association started registering official games at the 1908 Summer Olympics, assigned football managers who have coached the team at official tournaments. From 1911 to 1961, 169 matches were played without an assigned national team coach.

Manager	Year(s)	Games	Win	Draw	Loss	Win %
Charles Williams	1908-1910	4	3	0	1	75.0%
Axel Andersen Byrval	1913-1918	16	14	1	1	87.5%
caretaker managers	1920-1956	19	10	3	6	52.6%
Arne Sørensen	1956-1961	41	20	8	13	48.8%
Poul Petersen	1962-1966	47	17	8	22	36.2%
caretaker managers	1967-1969	28	13	4	11	46.4%
Rudi Strittich	1970-1975	61	20	11	30	32.8%
Kurt "Nikkelaj" Nielsen	1976-1979	31	13	6	12	41.9%
Sepp Piontek	1979-1990	115	52	24	39	45.2%
Richard Møller Nielsen	1987-1988[18] 1990-1996	73	40	18	15	54.8%
Bo Johansson	1996-2000	40	17	9	14	42.5%
Morten Olsena	2000-present	70	41	19	10	58.6%
a) Accurate up to and including October 11, 2006.

See also

• List of Denmark national football team results
• Denmark national football team statistics
• Roligans
• Parken Stadium

• Faroe Islands national football team
• Greenland national football team

Past squads and campaigns

• Euro 1964 squad
• Euro 1984 squad
• World Cup 1986 squad
• Euro 1988 squad
• Euro 1992 winning squad
• Euro 1996 squad
• World Cup 1998 squad
• Euro 2000 squad
• World Cup 2002 squad
• Euro 2004 squad and campaign

Footnotes

Literature

• (Danish) Palle "Banks" Jørgensen, "Landsholdets 681 profiler fra 1908 til i dag", TIPS-Bladet, 2002, ISBN 87-91264-01-4

External links

• Official national team page
• Official league national team page
• (Danish) Official national team shop
• (Danish) De Danske Roligans
• (Danish) Peders Fodboldstatistik

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