'Fat Man' Pua plots downfall of Denmark

After the pomp of the opening ceremony in Seoul, Group A gets its hands dirty today in this Korean coastal equivalent of Coventry merged with Milton Keynes. In the Munsu Stadium, built by the car manufacturer Hyundai and situated by a lake in an industrial park, Denmark and Uruguay will attempt to take advantage of France's opening flop and join Senegal as the section's embryonic leaders.

Despite their disparate histories in the tournament – Denmark's visits to the finals total two, which is the number of times Uruguay have won it – both these small countries have made a virtue of teamwork and organisation. Yet two players who will be in opposition again in next season's Milan derbies, Jon Dahl Tomasson and Alvaro Recoba, should ensure that the fare does not lack flair.

Both Tomasson, whose impending transfer from Feyenoord to Milan must have surprised those who remember his lack of impact at Newcastle, and Recoba, who Internazionale have reputedly made the highest-paid player in the world on a salary of £3m, both attack from a deep-lying role. Tomasson will play off a lone striker, Ebbe Sand, whereas Recoba will be asked to break from midfield in support of Sebastian Abreu and Dario Silva.

Abreu, Mexican-based and bearing the ominous nickname of "The Madman", is expected to be preferred to Manchester United's Diego Forlan. Victor Pua, Uruguay's rotund coach, has attracted the equally dubious moniker of "The Fat Man", though it would be pleasing, given his country's World Cup pedigree, to think that he might go down as the man who reinstated pure, or perhaps Pua, Uruguayan footballing values.

Fat chance of that, sceptics may say, especially when they consider that his captain, Paolo Montero, has received more red cards than anyone in Serie A history. But there was no sign in the South American qualifying group, in which Uruguay finished fifth, or in the play-off against Australia, that we are likely to see the cynical, systematic fouling which characterised their football in the 1980s.

In Mexico '86, for instance, Uruguay had a man sent off in 40 seconds against Scotland and another dismissed when they met Denmark. That game, in which the current Denmark coach, Morten Olsen, played in defence, ended in a 6-1 rout of the then South American champions which had many good judges tipping the Danes to win the trophy on their debut in the finals.

Olsen is the first to admit that the Dutch-style skills of his current assistant, Michael Laudrup, and the panache of Jesper Olsen, Preben Elkjaer and Jan Molby, the Hull City manager who is in Korea playing the Gary Lineker role for Danish television, personified the epithet "Danish Dynamite" more than him. They went on to beat West Germany before imploding in a 5-1 defeat by Spain.

No one in the Danish camp would claim such talents for today's team, whose watchword is togetherness, and it may be asking too much for them to emulate their quarter-final place four years ago. But their record under Olsen – just two "friendly" defeats in two years – suggests they are capable of advancing to the second round.

Intriguingly, the same is true of Uruguay, pointing to a tense, attritional contest, probably in humid conditions. Denmark will be at full strength, but Uruguay are without the injured Fabian O'Neill, whose midfield place is earmarked for Gianni Guigou.