Danes Have Great Day--a 1-0 Win : Victory Over Scotland Puts Team at Top of Strong Group

The skies darkened, jagged streaks of lightning split the clouds and, inevitably, the rains came, sweeping across the city and causing photographers in the press bus to glance nervously heavenward with each crack of thunder.

But by the time Mexico City had been left behind and the sprawling suburban slum of makeshift houses and mud-filled streets that is Nezahualcoyotl had been reached, the sun had broken through.

It was as if the gods had decided that Denmark could not possibly make its World Cup debut under such conditions. Not after the way the Danes had brightened European soccer over the last two or three years.

And so, the storm passed. By the 4 p.m. kickoff at Neza ’86 Stadium, the black clouds had vanished and the red-and-white banners, flags and painted faces of the Danish fans had become the predominant colors in sight.

For the hundreds of fans who had made the long trip from Copenhagen, this was the moment they’d waited years to experience: tiny Denmark, with a population of only 5 million, taking on the best in the world.

In this case, the best happened to be Scotland, whose own kilt-wearing, bagpipe-playing, beer-drinking fans spent an hour or so before the match chanting, “Port-u-gal, Port-u-gal,” in derisive reference to rival England’s 1-0 defeat by the Portuguese the day before.

Today, English fans can start their own song, because 1-0 was precisely the margin by which the Danes beat the Scots Wednesday afternoon.

Denmark’s victory, the result of a 58th-minute goal by the ever-dangerous Preben Elkjaer, moved it to the top of Group E, called the Group of Death because all four of its teams supposedly are strong.

Wednesday, West Germany and Uruguay showed that they are strong, indeed, playing to a hard-fought 1-1 tie at Queretaro to share second place in the group, but Scotland now looks like the weak link in the foursome.

Although Scottish Coach Alex Ferguson thought otherwise, believing that his team deserved at least a tie, Denmark clearly seemed the better team, individually and collectively.

Its two front-running players, Elkjaer and the elegant Michael Laudrup, looked far more threatening than any of the Scottish forwards, while the Danish midfield, led by Frank Arnesen, was much more imaginative in setting up the attacks than its Scottish counterpart.

The only area in which the Scots seemed to have an edge was in goal, where Scotland’s James Leighton looked far more sure of himself than did Denmark’s Troels Rasmussen.

Overall, however, the Danes seemed to have a better idea of what they were doing, and their execution was markedly superior to that of the Scots, although Gordon Strachan and Charlie Nicholas both played well.

Even so, Denmark’s West German Coach, Sepp Piontek, almost apologized after the match for the way his team played. It had sacrificed its usual hard-running, attractive style, he said, for the sake of gaining at least a tie.

Getting a victory was an unexpected surprise.

“I know our team can play better,” said Piontek, who took the team to the final four of the European Championships two years ago and as a result was named Denmark’s Person of the Year.

“We wanted to make no mistakes,” he said. “We had never played under these conditions. This is our first world tournament.

“I am satisfied with our victory. I hope we will play better the next time, but I have nothing against it if we play every time like this, and we win every time. It’s the points in the end that count.”

Piontek said a change of tactics in the second half, in which Laudrup played farther out on the right wing rather than as a joint central striker with Elkjaer, helped bring about the win, as did the Danes’ more proficient use of the short pass.

“Perhaps, we were a little bit better at the short passing in the second half, and that made the difference,” Piontek said. “Also, the Scottish players got tired, and perhaps they had not the forces nor the condition to change the game again.”

Ferguson, however, denied that Scotland, which only arrived in Mexico on Sunday, was in less than top condition or had been bothered by the altitiude.

“I thought we played well enough for Denmark to change its tactics in the second half,” he said. “So obviously we were a problem for them. I think in a game like this you need a little luck.”

That, Scotland did not have. Although the Scots managed to put a lot of pressure on the Danish defense, causing goalkeeper Rasmussen some trouble on high crosses into the goal area, it failed to finish the moves it began.

On a couple of occasions, the lanky Richard Gough got up to head the ball well enough, but his aim left something to be desired. Then, too, Graeme Souness came close with a low free kick that flew wide of the left post, and Strachan caused Rasmussen to smother a shot on the goal line.

Other than that, the Scots had little to show. The Danes, on the other hand, were always a good bet to score.

The game’s lone goal came 12:32 into the second half and, as it was, followed the best Scottish defensive move of the day.

Defender William Miller stopped Elkjaer cold with a powerful tackle on the edge of the goal area, stripping him of the ball and leaving the Danish forward in a heap on the ground. And he accomplished this without fouling him.

Elkjaer, not to be outdone, responded less than two minutes later when he accepted a fine through pass from Arnesen and, sprinting between Miller and Alex McLeish, fired a left-footed shot into the opposite corner of the net.

As it turned out, that one goal was all Denmark needed.