Zompist Bboard Again

I came across this in a video game about soccer/football.

メキシコ

Mexico

の

GEN

ディフェンス

defense

に

COM

悩む

struggle

デンマーク

Denmark

。

.

早い

quick

クロスボール

cross ball

から

from

チャンス

chance

を

ACC

掴み

seize

たい

VOL

ところ

place

だ

be

。

.

What's throwing me off is that structurally the first sentence looks like a bare noun phrase ("Denmark, who are struggling against Mexico's defense") but it's the main clause of the sentence ("Denmark are struggling against Mexico's defense"). What are the semantic considerations here? Why is it not デンマークはメキシコのディフェンスに悩む?

Strictly speaking, this makes a relative clause modifying Denmark. My guess is it's just a sentence fragment: "Denmark, who struggle with Mexico's defense." Ungrammatical in formal Japanese, but common enough in speech, like if it's imitating a sports caster. Another, equally plausible possibility is that they've just moved the subject to the end of the sentence for emphasis, which would not involve a subject marker. This feels pragmatically more likely to me, but it would depend on the surrounding context.

If I heard this sentence spoken, the prosody would make it obvious.

It is at least consistent in the game.

後半

second half

終了

end

直前

just before

に

COM

韓国

Korea

に

COM

PK

penalty

を

ACC

きめ

do

られ

PASS

た

PST

日本

Japan

。

.

アジア

Asia

最高

best

を

ACC

かけ

decide

た

PST

この

this

一戦

battle

。

.

がんばれ

go

日本

Japan

！！！！

!!!!

得意

signature

の

GEN

カウンター

counterattack

を

ACC

ふうじ

seal

られ

PASS

た

PST

ルーマニア

Romania

。

.

しかし

but

、

,

フリーキック

free kick

から

from

の

GEN

得点

goal

力

power

を

ACC

敵

enemy

に

COM

みせ

show

つけ

apply

る

NONPST

チャンス

chance

だ

be

。

.

スーパースター

superstar

フェルナンド

PN

へ

to

の

GEN

きびしい

relentless

チェック

mark

に

COM

なやむ

struggle

アルゼンチン

Argentina

。

.

しかし

but

、

,

試合

match

を

ACC

きめ

decide

る

NONPST

の

GEN

は

TOP

やはり

of course

フェルナンド

PN

の

GEN

キック

kick

だ

be

。

.

I have a friend who is a linguistics professor whose primary research is exactly on the tendency in Japanese towards bare nouns or copulas vs other types of predicates. She's pretty busy but I'll ask her for her explanation on this next time I talk to her, in a couple weeks.

Just giving an update so I don't totally let it slide...

My friend essentially gave me an hour and a half impromptu presentation on this, including pulling up her recent book to show me more examples (I definitely asked the right person!). I took a bunch of notes and need to summarize them for you.

*Watching