The excitement is building as we get closer to opening match of the 2010 World Cup. The Great Tournament is less than a month away and the anticipation of the 1st African World Cup is building, its going to be great. Let's now turn the focus to the only Scandinavian team in the tournament, Denmark.

Official Name: Dansk Boldspil-Union



Nickname: Danish Dynamite

FIFA Confederation: UEFA (Europe)

FIFA Code: DEN

How They Qualified: 1st place in Group 1 of UEFA WC Qualifying

World Cup Appearances (Including 2010): 4

Best WC Finish: Quarterfinals, France 1998

World Cup Record (MP: Wins - Draws - Losses): 13: 7W - 2D - 4L

Head Coach: Morten Olsen

Most Capped Player (# of caps): Peter Schmeichel (129)

All-Time Goal Scoring Leader (# of goals): Poul "Tist" Nielsen (52)

Brief Footballing History:
The Danes are one of the most under-appreciated footballing nations in the world. Whenever Denmark qualifies a tournament, they are competitive and consistently advance out of the opening stages. In the 3 previous WC they qualified for, Denmark has advanced out of the group stage and made a quarterfinal appearance in France 1998.

Denmark stunned the footballing world when they won the 1992 European Championship and cemented their place as a respected footballing nation when they beat Argentina, 2-0 to win the 1995 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Player To Watch:
The Danish player to watch is well-known in the English Premiership and is the successor to a Danish legend up top in the attack, he is Nicklas Bendtner.
(AP Photo/Hans Punz)
The Arsenal striker has a reputation in England for missing more goals than scoring but with Denmark he's been deadly. Bendtner scored 3 goals in the 4 toughest group matches during their impressive qualifying campaign and at 22-years old he is the successor at striker to current captain and Danish legend, Jon Dahl Tomasson.

Outlook:
Danish Dynamite are the most overlooked and least glamourous team in the group. However, they could be the team with the least question marks and could win this group. Coach Morten Olsen is the longest tenured coach of the World Cup teams and his knowledge of his team and their style gives Denmark a massive edge.

WC Group Schedule:
June 14 vs. Netherlands
June 19 vs. Cameroon
June 24 vs. Japan

Next up for Group E teams is Japan.