Young Danes come of age
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Article summary
Denmark reached the last four in their first finals in four years - but Henrik Lehm's young team are unlikely to have to wait that long for another chance.
Article body
Only one of the 2006 UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship semi-finalists had not reached that stage last year. In fact, Denmark had not even qualified since 2002 when they also made the last four.
Young squad
As in that campaign, Denmark's challenge was ended by France, the 2005 runners-up who will hope to go one better against Germany on Saturday. But it seems unlikely Denmark will have to wait until 2010 for another crack at the title, most of the team that performed so well in Switzerland being eligible again next summer.
'Going the right way'
This was a deliberate ploy by the Danish Football Association and Henrik Lehm, their talent development officer and coach of the U19 side here. "They are very young - only six were born in 1987. I have 12 of these girls next year, so we are going the right way in Denmark," he said. "Our 1988 generation was a very good group so two years ago we put them up to U19 and now they have many caps."
Tenacity
They showed great tenacity here, first by coming from behind to overcome Belgium 2-1 in their opener, then by bouncing back from a 2-0 loss to Germany and a number of injuries and illnesses to hold arch-rivals Sweden 0-0 and set up a semi-final against France. Les Bleuettes needed a 70th-minute winner for a 1-0 victory in a game that could have gone either way. Throughout the Danes were backed by a surprisingly large and noisy set of fans.
Defence impress
Among the players to impress were centre-backs Line Røddik and Maja Biltoft - the latter taking over the captaincy when Carina Carina broke her toe swimming - and wingers Kicki Nielsen and Nanna Christiansen. Louise Kristiansen did not score here but her eleven goals in qualifying were a tournament record. "In a small country like Denmark, we often have good players but not in every position - I think this team is different," Lehm said. "I think my two centre-backs are fabulous, usually my full-backs too, but they have been ill and injured. I think normally my back line is the best in Europe. Other teams have better players in other positions but I think that will come for us too."
