Melis matured by Swedish experience

For most of the Netherlands squad, UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ will be a crash course in competitive football against world-class talent. Striker Manon Melis, though, should have no qualms about such opposition.

Swedish move
The speedy attacker struck seven goals in qualifying to help the Netherlands to their first senior women's final tournament. By scoring her 20th in the Oranje shirt in the 2-0 defeat of Poland in the Netherlands' last home friendly, the 22-year-old moved to within eight of Marjoke de Bakker's national record. But then the daughter of former Feyenoord player Harry Melis has been proving her worth in the strong Swedish league on a weekly basis with LdB Malmö FC, who she joined in 2007, sharing the Damallsvenskan top scorer's prize with Brazilian star Marta last year.

Development
"First of all it was very important for my development as a football player, I changed and improved a lot and as a person as well," Melis told uefa.com. "I had just turned 20 and when you go to another nation, being on your own you develop your personality and become more mature. The football was tougher than I was used to especially the intensity of training. From training three or four times per week I now trained nine times in a week, so that is a big difference."

Play-off absence
The only real setback in that time has been breaking her jaw in a cup match last October, ruling her out of both legs of the play-off with Spain, though the Netherlands still qualified with two 2-0 wins. The former RVVH and Be Quick '28 forward said: "When I was in the stands it was difficult to watch them play without having any influence on the match. I had experienced everything in qualifying and now I had to sit helpless at the decisive moment. That was a strange experience, as on one hand I was extremely happy with the qualification but on the other hand I was not part of the team on the pitch at that moment, so there were mixed emotions."

Opposition
However, Melis looks certain to be an automatic choice for the Netherlands when they begin their campaign in Finland against Ukraine on Sunday. They go on to play the hosts before ending Group A against Denmark on 29 August. "I feel very good, very fit and we are working well together so things are going in the right direction for us," she said. "There is more attention from the media for women's football and that is only positive. Ukraine we do not know so much about, Finland and Denmark we know a bit, but we will get into detail on the opponents and I am sure the coach will tell us all about them.

Ambition
"We are well organised on the pitch, everyone knows their tasks, although there always are some points we can improve on. But we are going to the European Championship so we can look forward to some very beautiful games and our goal is to get through the group stage and then see where it ends. We will just do our ultimate best."