Liekoski looks forward for Finland

Finland may never have qualified for a major finals at senior level, but their achievements in youth football are impressive. They have reached final tournaments at Under-16, U17 and U18 level, and at the start of this decade were qualifying more often than not.

French test
Indeed, between 1999 and 2002 they qualified every year for the UEFA European U16 Championship, in the latter season when it had become the current U17 event. For the last three of those campaigns Timo Liekoski was the coach, and he remains in that position having also been in charge of Finland's U19 and futsal teams. He now acts as a UEFA technical observer, and in a distinguished career coached for a long time in the United States in both the old NASL and current MLS. But he wants to be at the U17 finals in Belgium as coach of one of the eight teams, to qualify Finland must win an Elite round group against hosts France, 2005/06 qualifiers Hungary and Norway from 26-31 March.

Difficult opponents
"Playing in France, it will be very difficult," Liekoski told uefa.com. "We have a fairly good idea about Norway because we saw them in the Nordic Cup though we did not play them. Hungary for me are a new team, we have never played them at this level, but they have done very well."

'Great experience'
Liekoski feels his team do have a chance, although he knows they are not favourites. "If you have a good age group you can go a long way in this," he said. "We have quite a good squad, they can score goals in every game. The question is what happens at our own end. But we feel very good about it, if you draw the likes of Spain, Portugal, England it becomes difficult for smaller countries, but we will go there with open eyes and do the best we can. In any case, it will be a great experience for the boys."