GROUP A / DENMARK

*--* World Cup record: Played 9 (5-3-1); goals for: 19; goals against: 13 Best finish: Quarterfinalist in 1998 1998 showing: Lost in the quarterfinals to Brazil Coach: Morten Olsen. Played on the “Danish Dynamite” team that lit up the 1986 World Cup at Mexico Players to watch: Ebbe Sand, Jon Dahl Tomasson, Thomas Helveg In brief: Without giant goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, now retired from international play, and the brothers Laudrup, Brian and Michael, Denmark isn’t what it was four years ago in France. Still, the Danes have plenty of heart and two top-notch strikers in Sand, the 2001 German Bundesliga top goal scorer, and Tomasson, who is headed for AC Milan after winning the UEFA Cup with Feyenoord, so who knows? The Danes might surprise Quick quote: “I don’t think we have a star. The team is the star.”--Olsen Forecast: Everything will depend on the June 1 game against Uruguay, when heat and the lack of an internationally experienced goalkeeper could be the Danes’ undoing

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