FIFA World Cup Draw: Denmark Grouped with Holland, Japan, and Cameroon

Denmark might not have landed in the proverbial "group of death ," but they sure have been handed a tough group with a lot of World Cup experience.

Between them, Holland, Japan, and Cameroon have 17 World Cup appearances, which makes Denmark, with only three previous World Cup appearances, the side with the shared least experience.

The pick of the group will be Holland and Morten Olsen has already gone on record stating the obvious.

He told Ekstra Bladet , "Holland are clear favorites and we (the other three nations) must fight it out for second place."

Not a wise thing to say at all. Even if he is simply stating the obvious, such talk is not the sort of thing the Danish players and public want to hear right now.

While the whole world had their eyes on the "group of death," who would land in Spain's group, and where France's ill-gotten qualification would take them, I'm pretty sure Denmark, Holland, Japan, and Cameroon are all quietly believe that they can make it out of this very interestingly Group E.

With eight previous appearances, Holland is the most experienced side in the group but have never won the cup. Their best results came in 1974 (West Germany) and then in 1978 (Argentina).

Denmark has beaten Holland in major tournaments before, but we have to go back 17 years (1992) to find the semifinal encounter during Euro'92 in Sweden.

Two goals from the eventual golden boot winner Henrik Larsen were cancelled out—first by Dennis Bergkamp and then in the 86th minute by Frank Rijkaard.

The match proceeded on to a shoot-out and everybody scored their spot kicks except one player, which placed Denmark in the final.

That player happened to go by the name of Marco Van Basten.

Olsen certainly showed his respect (or fear) for Holland and Bert van Marwijk was quick to return the favor saying the Danes are "very underrated."

"Denmark won their qualification group containing sides like Portugal and Sweden. It would be extremely foolish to under-estimate them and we certainly won't do that," he told Telegraaf.

"We (the Dutch) are known for our arrogance but that needs to be turned into confidence. We have often made the mistake of getting too happy too quickly and that was one of the first things I had to work on when I started," he continued in Ritzau.

Meanwhile, the Japanese coach, Takeshi Okada has stated that he knows nothing about Denmark and their capabilities.

Okada said, "I have no information on Denmark and Cameroon but thankfully, we have a long time yet to study them and hopefully next summer, we will know everything there is to know about these countries."

Denmark and History

As mentioned, Denmark has only ever appeared in three World Cup finals. The last two were quite recent, in France in 1998 and Japan/Korea in 2002.

The first one was all the way back in Mexico in 1986 and the years of the famous " Danish dynamite."   After qualifying for their first every World Cup, Denmark shocked the world by sweeping their group—which contained West Germany, Scotland, and Urugay—with maximum points.

After beating Scotland in the opening group match (1-0), they thrashed the highly rated Uruguay side (6-1), before clinching the top spot by beating favorites West Germany (2-0).

Led by strikers Michael Laudrup and Preben Elkjaer, Denmark took the whole world by surprise, not only with their results, but with their playing style. Arriving in Mexico virtually unknown, they came with a sway of arrogance and that certainly showed on the pitch.

Once in the knockout rounds, Denmark let themselves down and were sent home packing by Spain with a 5-1 spanking. Arrogance can be an advantage sometimes, but if not controlled, it could turn out to be your downfall.

Lesson learned.

Denmark got their chance to right the wrongs in 1992 when they were unexpectedly awarded (after failing to qualify) a place in Euro '92 after Yugoslavia, Denmark's conqueror's, were prevented from taking part.

Denmark was determined to not "just make up the numbers" after being labeled the groups "whipping boys." . As it turned out, they did more than that, emerging as Euro '92 winners in the final against Germany.

Playing in the World Cup in 1998 provided Denmark with another chance to impress the football world and after a pretty average group performance, Denmark set the World Cup alight by thrashing the talented Nigeria 4-1 before bowing out to Brazil in a highly entertaining 3-2 defeat.

The 2002 World Cup was a tournament to forget. Even though they helped eliminate France by beating them in the group stage (2-0) they were eventually sent packing by England (3-0) in the round of last 16.

Group E-Players to Watch Out For

Holland

Holland boasts a bunch of highly rated players that could potentially set the tournament on fire.

Robin Van Persie (if fit), Arjen Robben (if fit), Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, and Rafael Van Der Vaart are all capable of that bit of magic that can turn a match on its head.

Cameroon

Samuel Eto'o is the obvious one to look out for. Over the years, he has proved that he is a lethal and prolific goal scorer.

Arsenal's Alexandre Song, Tottenham's Bassong, and Assou-Ekotto are other notable players in Cameroon's squad.

Japan

No real obvious star in this current Japan side. With only five players playing their football outside Japan, what they achieve will be done so with a bunch of unknowns.

Denmark

Jon Dahl Tomasson, Christian Poulsen, Dennis Rommedahl, and Daniel Agger will have to play well for Denmark to progress out of this group.

The key players however, will be Nicklas Bendtner and Simon Kjaer.

What they do or don't do, will determine how Denmark fares next summer.

" Denmark might not have landed in the proverbial " group of death" but they sure have been handed a tough group with a lot of World Cup experience."