Meager Scouting on Danes

Unfortunately, that richly-detailed, player-by-player look at the Danish "B-squad" that the U.S. Men's National Team (USMNT) will play on Saturday (game time here) has yet to materialize. It's possible I'm looking in the wrong places, but so far I'm seeing mainly big overviews of Danish soccer history.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, either. I mean, I could get off my duff and look into these players with only a little more effort than the next guy.

Even so, I did catch one note on Danish soccer in general that should give us some notion of what to expect on Saturday; this one comes from the chat Marc Connolly enjoyed with Fox Soccer Channel's Christopher Sullivan. Here's that:

"While his time playing under Olsen was short, Sullivan quickly learned the method to his team's success."

"'They pressured all over the field,' he said. 'It was high-pressure, forcing teams to play quickly and under duress.'"


I like what I read there. A pressing game should help expose some of our players who may not be comfortable as they can be on the ball.

Against that, a Grahame Jones report from the LA Times leads with the short time this Danish team has had to get to know one another. As much as it would be nice to ease Bradley into his too-brief trial, we also need to get the team and coach settled well ahead of qualifying; a Danish team still working out the kinks may not tell us much of anything...unless we get our asses kicked, that is.

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