The Olsen Gang

The new coach turned out to be the former national team captain from the successful team of the 1980s, Morten Olsen, and the team was quickly dubbed the "Olsen Gang", a reference to the series of Danish movies based around the main character Egon Olsen and his genius (criminal) plans. The nickname was also used for the Danish team when Olsen captained it. Under Olsen, who brought with him great experience from among others Ajax Amsterdam, Denmark's tactics shifted to an even more attacking style, with an emphasis on the speedy wingers available to him at the time, namely Jesper Grønkjær and Dennis Rommedahl, and Olsen stressed the importance of only using fit and on-form players in the team - a principle that he's later been forced to go back on somewhat, as the player material available in such a relatively small nation doesn't always provide many realistic options.

Denmark qualified both for the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the Euro 2004, but despite impressive results in the group stage in both tournaments, especially the 2–0 win against reigning World Cup winners France in 2002, Denmark were defeated in the first post-group stage round in both tournaments. The Euro 2004 will be best remembered for an incident in the game with Italy, where Italian star Francesco Totti was caught on camera by a Danish cameraman, spitting on Danish player Christian Poulsen, and the joint elimination of Italy by Denmark and Sweden in the last group stage match when the two teams drew 2–2 following a Swedish goal in the 89th minute, making for the exact and famous result that would see the Italians eliminated.

Olsen's reign of the Danish national team has been the most successful in the time of professional coaches. As of March 2006, Morten Olsen has a winning share of 58,7%, and with three points for a victory and one for a draw, Olsen has an average of 2,03 points per game. In comparison, Richard Møller Nielsen had a 54,8% winning share and a 1,89 point average, and especially Olsen's attitude of taking every friendly match seriously has led to many good results, one notable example being a friendly 4–1 win over England in 2005, the worst loss for the English team since 1980 and a repetition of the impressive Danish 3–2 win on English ground at Old Trafford in 2003.

For the 2006 World Cup qualification, Denmark was paired with, among others, 2002 World Cup bronze winners Turkey and Euro 2004 champions Greece competing for only one guaranteed spot at the final tournament. Following a poor start of the qualification, Denmark were trailing both Turkey and surprise leaders Ukraine. Denmark needed Turkey to lose points in the final games in order for Denmark to clinch the 2nd place of the group and one last chance to qualify via two play-off games. Indeed, had Turkey lost points to Albania in their last game, Denmark would have gone through, but instead they had to settle for 3rd place in the group and a longer summer break.

After failing to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, coach Olsen considered leaving the job, having received several offers from club teams, but decided to stay and extended his contract until after the 2010 FIFA World Cup, spurred on by his and the team's popularity among the Danish population.

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