Danish captain calls for positive approach

Press, 12 June 1986, Page 29

Danish captain calls for positive approach

NZPA-Reuter Queretaro The Danish captain, Morten Olsen, yesterday called on other teams playing in the World Cup to copy the attractive, attacking style of his team.

“I’m happy that we have shown you can get results by playing attractive football,” he said. “I hope we will be copied by many other countries.” Denmark has already qualified for the second round from group E after winning its first two games, including the spectacular 6-1 trouncing of Uruguay on Sunday which had many dubbing them “the new Brazilians” “I would like us to get to the finals and play Brazil,” he said. “They are the football team every soccer player wants to meet and beat. “If we don’t make it, I would like a team which plays our kind of attractive football to win the World Cup. “I hope teams that play negative football will be beaten out of the tournament and that it will be shown that destructive soccer does not pay.” Olsen said he believed Denmark could provide the sort of inspiration to play open soccer that the

Netherlands did in the 1974 and 1978 finals. “At least the way our team has played has shown people in the world that there is a country called Denmark,” he added. Denmark needs just a draw from its match with West Germany on Friday to finish top of group E, giving it a second round match in Queretaro, probably against Spain. A midfielder, Jens Joem Bertelsen, will not be fit for the West Germany game because of an ankle injury from the Uruguay match, but the team doctor reported that he should be back in action within four to seven days. The manager, Sepp Piontek, said the loss of the experienced Bertelsen was a big blow as he was the man who covered all the gaps in a midfield otherwise dominated by creative players. The performance of the first choice goal-keeper, Troels Rasmussen, who has been particularly un-

sure when coming out for high balls, has raised the only question mark over the side’s ambitions so far. Piontek had considered bringing in the veteran, Ole Qvist, for the game against Uruguay last Sunday but then a virus laid low the 36-year-old who was outstanding in the 1984 European Championships. Qvist is still under the weather, suffering headaches and dizzy spells, and if Piontek decides on a change the man who is set to be thrown in against West Germany in its last group E match is Lars Hogh. The 27-year-old, who plays for the Odense BK Club in Denmark, did not get a game on the prefinals tour of Colombia but greatly impressed in training. He has only three caps to his name, and those were all earned with the Olympic side. Liverpool’s Jan Molby, who replaced Bertelsen, is set to continue in midfield against the Germans and

will thus start a match in the finals for the first time. The midfielder, Soren Lerby, missed training on Tuesday as a precautionary measure because he was still feeling the effects of the collision a couple of weeks ago with Molby which left him with damaged ribs. However, there is no doubt about Lerby’s presence against the Germans and the striker, Michael Laudrup, whose legs were black and blue from the attentions of the Uruguayans, should also Play. Both Germany and Denmark, the latter already sure of a second round place, are desperate to finish top of the group because that would enable them to stay here in Queretaro and meet the runners-up in group D.

The group E runner-up faces the worst fate of all as it goes to meet the winners of Group F in Monterrey, with all the problems of heat and a 1300 m drop in altitude.