Jeglertz sets Umeå goal

There is little over a month to go before the UEFA Women's Cup final as a new-look Umeå IK side stand on the threshold of an unprecedented third European triumph.

Squad changes
A victory against Arsenal LFC over two legs on 21 and 29 April will take Umeå one success ahead of 1. FFC Frankfurt, who in 2002 became the only team to beat the Swedish side in a final. And although coach Andrée Jeglertz has lost Malin Moström and Anna Sjöström to retirement, the arrival of Chinese forward Ma Xiaoxu - following in the footsteps of 2006 FIFA Women's World Player Marta in signing after a starring role at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup - and Swiss midfielder Ramona Bachmann have added youthful zest to his squad.

High target
"Our goal every season is to win everything," Jeglertz said as his team prepare to start the Swedish season next month. "Maybe we have some new players but the 'old' players have to take more responsibility. Maybe we won't be at our best at the end of April. Hopefully by the summer we will be back at the level we were at last year."

Ljungberg fitness race
However, they could be without the competition's all-time leading scorer, Hanna Ljungberg, who continues to recover from a thigh injury. "She is training on her own for a couple more weeks. We are going to Turkey for a week [from 24 March] and she will be more involved in our squad training," Jeglertz said. "So I hope she will be fit by the end of April, but I am not sure."

English rise
Umeå have played 38 matches in this competition, a tally only matched by Frankfurt, but this is their first meeting with a side from England. Jeglertz said: "It's a new thing to face an English team but a lot of our players have played England before. If they have a team in the final they are certainly on the way up. Sweden had a tough beginning too so hopefully this will make women's football bigger in England."

Smith suspension
Arsenal will be without star player Kelly Smith through suspension for both legs, and Jeglertz admitted: "I am not going to miss her in the final! I worry about their wing players, both their full-backs and wingers. It is something we have to deal with. They are a solid team, they win a lot. It is always difficult to play against teams with that confidence as they don't think they can lose."

Progress
His club, indeed, point to what is possible. "About ten years ago we decided to make progress and thought if we were going to make a real effort," said Jeglertz, head coach at Umeå since early 2004. "The first time we won the league was 2000 and after that there has only been progress. Interest in Umeå is very big, in 2005 there were 3,000 fans at every game."

Seats sold out
Indeed, all 4,000 seating places are already sold out for the final and Roland Karlsson of their community department added: "For Umeå as a club, for the city, for the region, it is very important to reach the final and of course to win it. I heard a member of our community say the other day that UIK [the club] is more well known than Umea [the town]."