ULSAN, South Korea -- With a late headed goal from Jon Dahl Tomasson -- his second in a game that for periods descended into scrappiness and bad-tempered fouls -- Denmark started its 2002 World Cup campaign here on Saturday with an important 2-1 victory over Uruguay.

Denmark coach Morten Olsen hailed his lanky striker's contribution, saying: "It's nice to see the things you've practiced paying off on the pitch."

"I still see France as favorite in this group, even after last night's result against Senegal, and they will be very difficult to play against," he said. "I also think Senegal did marvelously and they have solid defenders." Denmark faces Senegal in Taegu on Thursday.

Despite the loss Uraguay coach Victor Pua was sanguine about his team's performance.

"We played a good match. It's not our fault and this is football. Denmark knew how to score at the right moment," he said.

"We need to work a lot for the next matches and think about the mistakes we made today."

Initially, Uruguay had gone about its task with gusto. In its pale blue shirts, the team was on the attack from the kickoff, with Dario Silva close to capitalizing on through balls into the Danish penalty area twice in the first couple of minutes. Silva -- standing out because of his improbably blonde hair -- remained a thorn in Denmark's side for most of the half, his pace and willingness to run at defenders making him hard to counter.

The Danes' first real chance came in the 12th minute, Ebbe Sand's headed ball going hard into the ground before bouncing up and onto the top of Carini's bar.

It was not long after this that the half began to descend into a niggling contest of fouls. Denmark's Martin Laursen got the kicking contest under way by catching Silva above his knee and in need of treatment on the touchline.

Each side accused the other of play acting, with Silva involved in most matters of dispute. Unfortunately for the spectators, the niggly challenges broke up the rhythm of both sides. Gustavo Mendez was booked in the 25th minute and was followed into the referee's book nine minutes later by Danish captain Jan Heintze.

By this time, the game needed a goal. Fortunately, in the 44th minute, it got it.

Free on the left wing, Denmark's Jesper Gronkjaer crossed low and hard, enabling Tomasson to steal between two defenders and side-foot firmly past Carini. The goal kept up Denmark's remarkable record of scoring in each of the 11 World Cup finals matches that it has played.

After the break, however, Uruguay's response was immediate. In the first minute of the second half, a ball half-cleared out of the Danish defense was blasted first time into the top left hand corner of Thomas Sorenson's goal, the goalkeeper not even close to stopping its journey into the back of the net.

It is early in the tournament but Dario Rodriguez's strike is likely to at least make the short list for the best goal of the World Cup.

A laboring Heintze was replaced by Niclas Jensen in the 56th minute, but the Uruguyan's were intent on maintaining their ascendancy, Rodriguez again firing a low shot in the 62nd minute that Sorensen was glad to hold onto and shortly afterward a Danish defender taking a cross off the head of Sebastian Abreu as he shaped to strike it home.

Olsen tinkered with his team in the 69th minute, taking off winger Gronkjaer and throwing on striker Martin Jorgensen. The change seemed to have had some effect, with Jorgensen soon beating three Uruguyan defenders on the periphery of the penalty area before being eventually halted by the keeper.

Uruguay replaced the curiously subdued Recoba with Mario Reguerio on 79 minutes as coach Victor Pua went in search of a victory, but the ploy backfired.

With just nine minutes left on the clock, Tomasson rose unchallenged on the edge of the Uruguyan six-meter box to meet an inch-perfect cross from the left, his header grazing the underside of Carini's bar before settling into the back of the net.

Pua's response was to send on another forward, Frederico Magallanes, for Rodriguez, but the damage had already been done and even three minutes of time added on was not sufficient for Uruguay to stage a second dramatic recovery.