Nations gather for EURO reunion

By Mark Bennett

UEFA European Under-17 Championship Group 7, starting on Saturday, will bring back contrasting memories for the nations involved as the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Latvia travel to Germany for a carbon copy of UEFA EURO 2004™ Group D.

German optimism
Germany missed out in Portugal, but on home soil Jörg Daniel's side have reason for optimism. Although they have not reached an U17 finals since 2002, this season's team began in August with a 1-0 win against Switzerland before topping a qualifying round group containing the Republic of Ireland, Iceland and Lithuania.

Friendly wins
In February, Germany gained 2-0 and 2-1 friendly wins against Ukraine. However, with only one place in Italy up for grabs, Daniel warned: "The upcoming group will be much more difficult. Our first match against the Czech Republic will be decisive. Hopefully we will still be able to qualify when we finish our fixtures against the Netherlands. Latvia are the dark horses but could play a vital role."

Promising talents
Daniel has plenty of talent to call upon. Ralf Fährmann and Martin Männel are two fine goalkeepers, while midfield player Sergej Evljuskin, playmaker Oskar Schmiedel and striker Sebastian Tyrala are also promising prospects.

Czech form
However, Daniel is right to be wary of the Czechs. Denmark, Sweden and Slovenia were all defeated in the qualifying round, and friendly wins have followed in Italy and against Greece in a Canary Islands tournament, where they also drew with the Spanish hosts.

'Useful defeats'
Only 3-0 and 5-3 defeats in Turkey last month ended that run, but as that side eliminated France to reach the finals last week, even those losses are not disastrous. Czech coach Augustin Chromý said: "They were useful defeats as the players thought before that everything was too easy."

Valenta fit
Top scorer Jirí Valenta has recovered from an injury sustained in Turkey, while Jakub Dohnálek of SFC Opava and FC Marila Príbram's Tomás Pilík both have top-flight experience. Valenta's SK Slavia Praha club-mate Radim Necas is a familiar name; his father played for the senior national team five years ago.

Dutch progress
The Netherlands, like Germany and the Czechs, are aiming for their first qualification since the 16-team finals of 2002. Ruud Kaiser's team had a nervous route to this round - they finished behind Turkey but ahead of Wales in a three-way tie. On 9 March they came from behind to defeat Austria 3-1 in a friendly, John Goossens scoring twice, but it was the second goal, a free-kick move involving Ruud Vormer, Jordy Buijs and scorer Diego Biseswar, that most pleased Kaiser.

Set-pieces vital
"I made clear to them that, at the highest level, matches are often decided from dead-ball situations," he said. "Greece won the [UEFA] European Championship from a corner, and also the recent match between Chelsea [FC] and [FC] Barcelona was decided from a corner."

Latvian qualification
Latvia are in this round for the first time, draws with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Belgium taking them through on goal difference behind France. Skonto FC's youth academy side JFC Skonto, from Latvia's second tier, provide the bulk of the squad, who last month competed in a tournament in Belarus, overcoming the hosts' U16 team 2-0 before drawing 1-1 with Poland U17 and losing 2-1 to Belarus' U17 side. Aleksandrs Solovjovs scored all four Latvia goals.

No fear
Coach Vladimirs Bekarev warned: "We will be up against much bigger sides, but we will not be afraid. We played illustrious opponents in the qualifying round as well, but we still advanced."

Additional reporting by Ladislav Josef, Berend Scholten & Oleg Sokol