Denmark v Kyrgyzstan
Denmark (14) v Kyrgyzstan (2)
As expected, Denmark's second game of the day drew a huge crowd and also brought the sunshine as they entertained Kyrgyzstan. Despite looking to make up for the loss against Hungary, the Danes have made a grand gesture by allowing 3 of their reserve players to play for Kyrgyzstan in this tournament to make up their numbers, including the opponent's goalkeeper today. The players shook hands and exchanged flags, before the game kicked off to a frenzy of support.
In the opening minute Kyrgyzstan surprised everyone by having the possession, showing some excellent foot control and neat passing. Their opening attempts were saved however, and the Danish captain Bell put 3 away in the first few minutes to make it 3-0 to Denmark. The stand-in Kyrgyzstan goalie made a string of good saves to deny yet more goals from Bell, and Ludvigsen finally put another one past him with a well taken shot. Before half-time Thomsen made it 5-0 to Denmark, in a game that has been less of a shooting practice than the Danish supporters would have expected.
Straight after the kick off Clifforth made it 6-0 to Denmark, but soon after the Kyrgyzstan number 7 put a fantastic side-footed shot past the Danish keeper to stamp her authority on the match. The Danish number 5 cancelled this out to make it 7-1, but Kyrgyzstan were then awarded a penalty kick, which their number 7 stepped up to take. It was narrowly missed however and the follow-up was saved acrobatically by the Danish number 1.
The impressive Kyrgyzstan resistance soon broke, with Christensen and the prolific Bell (with 3 in a row) scoring for fun to make it 12-1. Kyrgyzstan pulled one back through the Danish reserve player, but they couldn't help the Danish late substitute Claude making it 14-2 with a well taken strike into the right hand corner of the goal. The best supported match so far in this tournament, with the visitors Kyrgyzstan encouraged throughout by the passionate crowd. An excellent advertisement for the Homeless World Cup, and the win gives Denmark 2 wins out of 3 in their group.