Matikainen's long-term goals

European champions
At the beginning of the 1990s there were 6,060 registered female players in Finland, a figure which had risen to 17,131 at the turn of this year. HJK Helsinki's progress to the semi-finals of the 2001/02 UEFA Women's Cup did much to promote the game, while three Finns plying their trade in Sweden were integral members of the Umeå IK team which ended last season as European champions.

'Broader picture'
Those factors, and months of toil by local organisers, point to a successful tournament when the eight-team U19 championship kicks off on Wednesday. Finland are in Group B alongside Spain, Switzerland and Germany, three-times winners of this event and the hosts' first opponents tomorrow in Hyvinkää. Yet Matikainen prefers to focus on the "broader picture" rather than what might transpire over the next 12 days.

'Future development'
"We like to think that it's not about the three or four games we could play here but about the whole tournament and the future development of the game in Finland," he said. "That's why it's important for the Football Associaton of Finland and everyone who is involved in the game here to see how big women's and girls' football is at the moment; there's no better way to show how it's developing than by hosting this type of tournament.

'Good team'
"Of course, I think we have a good team, players who are developing, and we'll do our utmost to provide tough opposition for the bigger countries, but we want to look at the broader picture. This tournament is very much about development for us."

Decent crowds
Matikainen expects some sizeable crowds to get behind Finland, who are competing in a final tournament for a first time at this level. The coach said: "We have a very good youth programme, which is called All-Stars, and the All-Stars department has been working hard to ensure we have lots of schoolchildren, specifically girls, attending. I'm very confident that we'll have good attendances."

Friendly victory
Finland warmed up for the championship by playing England twice last week, friendlies which brought some much-needed match practice as well as a morale-boosting 3-1 victory in the opener and a draw in the second. "We would have liked to have started our preparation by playing last year but we couldn't do that," said Matikainen. "Therefore it was very important for us to play those two games against England, while they were also good promotion for the tournament."

Calming nerves
Finland planned to have "a full 75-minute training session" on the eve of their opening game before "going to the park and relaxing" on Wednesday morning. When the relaxing is over, a final challenge awaits Matikainen. "The players are very committed and probably the biggest thing for my final preparation is calming their nerves," he concluded.