Domanski-Lyfors looks ahead

Despite no longer being coach, the woman who led Sweden to the finals of both the UEFA European Women's Championship and the FIFA Women's World Cup will be closely involved when the Scandinavians attempt to qualify for UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™.

Norway loss
Marika Domanski-Lyfors ended her nine-year reign as Sweden coach after extra-time semi-final defeat by Norway at UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2005™, another near miss after her side lost the 2001 European final, 2003 World Cup final and 2004 Olympic semi-final to Germany. Now impressing at the helm the Under-21s, Domanski-Lyfors admits to thinking back to the narrow loss to their Nordic neighbours in England 18 months ago, and what might have been.

Mixed feelings
"I'm still disappointed, of course," Domanski-Lyfors told uefa.com. "We wanted to reach another final and we were so close but Norway were the better team. I think it was a good game, I'm OK with that but I'm still disappointed." Nevertheless, Domanski-Lyfors can look back at her reign with pride. "Women's football gets better and better, so I am satisfied to have kept Sweden at the top and got them into finals, especially at the World Cup," she said. "That was the highlight."

EURO goal
Under Domanski-Lyfors's successor Thomas Dennerby, Sweden have qualified for this September's World Cup in China, but first play their opening UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ fixtures against Italy, Romania and Hungary in a pool which also contains the Republic of Ireland. Domanski-Lyfors is pleased that 12 teams, increased from eight, will compete aty the finals in Finland. "It is good for Europe, we are ready for that and the standard is good," she said.

Youth success
Involved with Swedish national teams since becoming U20 coach in 1991, Domanski-Lyfors is involved in player development alongside her U21 role, and identifies success at youth level as the key to staying at the pinnacle of the world game. "I know how good they have to be when they reach the top level and if Sweden want to stay at the top we have to develop our players even more," she said. "We reached the European Under-19 finals and we won the Under-21 Nordic Cup last year and the Nordic Under-17s, so we have a lot of girls coming up."

World-class clubs
Of course, Sweden also benefit from having one of the best women's leagues in the world, with professional clubs the envy of many in Europe. Chief among them are Umeå IK, who will attempt to win a record third UEFA Women's Cup crown when they tackle Arsenal LFC in the final in April. "If we want to succeed our clubs have to be even better, because they educate the players, and they are getting better and better and more professional," Domanski-Lyfors said. "We have one of the best teams in Europe with Umeå, one of the best in the world perhaps."