After six years in the cold, Denmark return to a major championship and Lee Norton finds reasons to hope.
Old and new make Danes a tasty proposition
Well I'm now officially a Denmark supporter.... Fortrinli! (I believe that's Danish for excellent) and I now have an entire nations hopes at my fingertips, well sort of.
Ever since Denmark became my adopted team for this World Cup I've been doing some extensive research, mainly during breakfast, eating Danish pastries, bacon butties and drinking 'probably the best lager in the world'. I then did some more serious research and began looking at the footballing side of the Country.
Supporting Denmark as my 'second team' in this World Cup isn't going to be difficult, after all, the Danish flag is very similar to that of England's, it's just reversed and you could say some of this country could be descended from the Vikings, so there might be Danish blood in a lot of us.
Having said that I can't imagine that there'll be many Danish people viewing this blog, but for those that do, I hope I can do your country some justice. In fact, I imagine that quite a few of you have probably picked Denmark in the sweepstake at work and are wondering just how good your chance of winning it is... I'll be honest, it's not great, but you could certainly have picked worse.
Wilderness
It's been a disappointing few years for Denmark recently. Having had success in the World Cups in France 1998 (Quarter-finals) and Japan 2002 (Last 16) plus managing to reach the Quarter-finals in Portugal for Euro 2004, they failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2006 and the European Championships in 2008.
The qualifying campaign for this World Cup though was very different. Having been drawn in a reasonably difficult group with the likes of Portugal and Sweden it looked as though qualification could be quite a challenge for Morten Olsen's team. In fact, they finished top of the group taking 4 points from Portugal and 6 from Sweden, easing through to the finals.
So are the Danes back to their best? There are a few familiar names in the Denmark squad, Liverpool's Daniel Agger, Stoke's Thomas Sorensen and Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner.
The injury to Sorensen towards the end of the Premier League season was a big blow for Denmark, but they'll be hoping he will be fit for their first game on 14th June. The old boys are still there as well with Rommedahl, Jesper Grønkjær and Jon Dahl Tomasson making the squad.
Denmark are in Group E, along with Holland, Cameroon and Japan. It's probably too optimistic to think that Denmark win the group and I'd suspect that the Dutch are relatively confident of topping it so it'll be Cameroon that the Danes will have to overcome if they are to get through the Group Stage.
Of course that's not going to be easy against the likes of Samuel Eto'o but I'm confident the Danes can get into the last 16.
Komme for Danmark! (That's Danish for Come on Denmark!)
Will the Danes manage to spring another surprise in South Africa, or will the Dutch prove too strong? Join the World Cup FZ debate by filling in the feedback form below
