A vague idea comes to me that Denmark doesn't want to play football in the tournament anymore given their lack of vitality in their movements and passing. In other words, they want to crash out.
Unfortunately, Denmark was doomed at this WC because the Danes including the players have been highly divided about participating in this WC for obvious reasons, so even if Denmark has 20 players in the top 4 leagues in this squad and Australia only 2, which is not really that important because at the end of the day it's the heart and team spirit that is the most important and decisive for Denmark which was never really there in this tournament, making this the worst performance at a tournament ever for Denmark, but I'm not surprised at all, still, I had hoped for Tunesia to progress.
Im so happy for Graham Arnold himself about this. He's been such an asset for Australian football and always underappreciated. Now he'll rightly take a place as a hero of Australian football. What a wonderful effort.
Damn Australia got revenge on Peru and Denmark from last WC. Congrats Aussies! Wish Peru coulda been there with ya
Wound up going to this match after a fellow Bigsoccerer offered an impromptu spare ticket. Anyhoo, congrats Australia who koalify for the round of 16. Denmark left to -roo a rather poor world cup
I didn't think we'd top the group, but a very good chance to snag second. I actually thought that France might be the one to implode, but Denmark did it instead. Either way, I'm happy. (Apart from the French still trying to punish us for the submarine deal gone wrong )
Anyway, got a ticket for Argentina v Australia so I'm afraid to say the pundemic won't be leaving Australia anytime soon....
Did the crowd stick around for an hour after the game like we did in Stuttgart 16 years ago? We were singing and dancing to Men at Work and AC/DC on repeat during all that time. I think the German ground announcers had much better taste in music then the Qataris if all they can muster up is Waltzing Matilda.
um wouldn't know because I know someone who didn't stick around for too long after the final whistle Was out the door and on the bus back to make it in time to watch the group c finale... but being a neutral I guess I'm allowed to do that. Anyway, congratulations and will see you at the 2nd round match in a couple of days...
I also bought into the hype. Not quite as much as you (I had them finishing second) but still thought they would advance comfortably. I am trying to figure out what exactly warranted all the pre-tournament hype they received. Last WC, they lost in the round of 16. But that was 4 years ago, so maybe they improved. or did they? ..... Looking at the Euros held just last year, they advanced out of a weak group with 3 points! Drew Wales and Czech Republic, and won both thereby taking full advantage of the easiest draw in Euro history. But then got thoroughly outplayed by England in the semis, who themselves got thoroughly outplayed in the final. After the Euros they beat Faroe Islands twice, Israel once and split 2 games v Scotland. In Nations League they finished second in their group behind a good Croatia side. Not bad results at all, but surely not worth much hype. Peru basically achieved the same results in the past 3 years.
Oh and while I remember it, that ref. What a joke. How quick was he to award a penalty for nothing to Denmark, which he had to retract straight away because he was offside. I've never seen a penalty given so quickly for so little, except on (current) Ronaldo. Even all the 50/50 calls seemed to be going against us? Or was I that one eyed? How did the neutral see that pen decision?
Good question. Well Denmark played very well against Croatia in 2018 and only went out on penalties. I thought Croatia would win that game easily before. Then they were very impressive in Euro 2021. They only advanced with 3 points but you’re forgetting something. They played so well against Finland until the Eriksen incident. After that they lost, but it’s understandable after what happened with Eriksen. They outplayed Belgium in the first half and just lost the gas and threw it away in the second, but it was against Belgium, who were still good back then. Then they completely killed Russia and Wales. Dominated Czech Republic. Played very well against England. England played better, but the Danes held on tight and the winning penalty awarded to England was controversial. Then they won all their games except the last one vs Scotland which they didn’t need to win in World Cup Qualification. They beat France twice and beat Austria in the Nations League. That’s mainly where the hype is coming from. But when you look at the way they played in Euro 2021, they were extremely impressive and a force to be reckoned with.
They were playing on a level way above the sum of their parts for a long time but ultimately in this tournament their lack of quality especially in attack was exposed. Why did that happen at this moment when they were seemingly at the peak of their performance just few months ago, that's the mystery.
Denmark's performance against Australia especially when trailing was pathetic. I felt also that Kjaer and Delaney were badly missed as leaders. Eriksen is not a natural leader. He's too quiet for that. Denmark lacked ideas in the final third. In the dying minutes they did nothing other than shuffling the ball and cross it from nowhere dangerous spots. I voiced before that Denmark failed to impress me in most of their road trips. Their best performances at the EUROs and in qualfying came mostly when playing at home. For some reason they didn't have the same energy levels when they played outside of Denmark.
They were massively hyped by some casual fans and neutral observers. In fact Argentina - Denmark was quite an often cited final. If I learned something from this World Cup then it is that hyped teams very often get complacent and fail.
Watching it I felt honestly the same. The intensity wasn't there at all. Especially when they were trailing you would have expected them to throw everything at Australia but they never did. They proceeded to play even more half-assed than before they conceded. If they had that big of an issue with Qatar as a host they should have withdrawn and give their place to another UEFA team.
Why do we hear about Danish players being divided only know? It would have been nice if we people from the outisde had this information before.