Sport - Football

From Owen, an English toast

By Brian Glanville

Saporro June 8. When Sven-Goren Eriksson, England's Swedish Manager, pulled off Michael Owenlate late in the game at the Saporro Dome on Friday, the Argentines must have breathed a welcome sigh of relief.

By now they surely hate the sight of little Owen, who seems to rejoice in the chance to take on their formidable and far from gentle defenders, though in this case perhaps the best of them, Roberto Ayala, was missing.

Four years ago, in Saint Etienne, Owen then a mere 18 years old, gained what was admittedly a dubious penalty, but went on to score a glorious solo goal, leaving Ayala for dead.

In Saporro, he hit a post with that inspired shot through the legs of another Argentine central defender, Walter Samuel, then gained the penalty from which England won the game, when Mauricio Pochettino brought him down.

To bring Owen off at that late stage of the game would have made a semblance of sense had Eriksson sent on another natural striker, such as Darius Vassell — he too small and so quick — or Robbie Fowler. But he didn't. Almost irrationally, he put in a second left back in Wayne Bridge!

It was virtually a signal to the Argentines, come and get us! The initiative was handed to them but England held out, lucky in the majestic form of the veteran keeper David Seaman, now back to his best, all memories of the goal he gave away to Dietmar Ilamann's free kick at Wembley expunged.

But then what of France's manager Roger Lemerre, who, as we know, so rashly exposed his defence by choosing Frank Leboeuf who had a poor season even in the French League with Marseille, and was horribly exposed by Senegal's El Hadji Diouf.

That dynamic striker is on his way to Liverpol, as is midfielder Salif Diao, though quite what the Merseysiders can expect from the latter for better or for worse must be something of an enigma. In the heat of Daegu I saw him have an extraordinary game against Denmark — two dreadful moments sandwiching a fine goal.

First, he gave away an absolutely needless penalty when shoving the Danish centre forward, Jon Dahl Tomasson, who, be it noted, is now on his way from Holland's Feyenord to Milan for a vast fee. Newcastle might well note that, since they kicked him out after a short unhappy spell there.

Anyway, Diao proceeded to score an equaliser which capped a glorious movement, almost from one end of the field to the other and the final, supremely judged, pass coming from one more controversial player Khalilou Fadiga.

Fadiga, with his formidable left foot, could well have been sent off previously for a bad foul that provoked a 19-player scuffle before some sort of peace was restored. Before the tournament began, he was caught stealing a gold necklace from a jeweller.However, Fadiga plainly isn't easily distressed, since even before the charges were dropped he played as we know an outstanding part in Senegal's victory against France in Seoul.

Meanwhile, what of the stupidly impetuous Thierry Henry, so vital to his French team, who had himself sent off? Diao went for a silly, shocking foul against the Danish midfielder, Rene Henriksen. Henry was properly sent off in the game against people Uruguay, somewhat notorious in the past for such excesses themselves.

Henry had a couple of mad moments with Arsenal last season, confronting referees in Athens after a game versus Panathinaikos and at Highbury after his team had lost to Newcastle.

Excuse me, if I am highly amused by the scandal involving tickets acquired by Sepp Blatter's Qatar henchman, Mohamed Bin Hammam. He protests, of course, total innocence over the revelation that tickets, with his name inscribed sold for $500 over the odds to fans.

``Totally genuinely shocked and amazed'' he is said to be. Well, well it was Hammam who just after Saudi Arabia had collapsed 8-0 to Germany, demanded a fifth Asian place at the next World Cup! Nothing like brazen cheek, is there?

Then there's the fiasco of the unsold, unavailable tickets, which is properly incensing the Japanese Federation. Why on earth did Scotland and FIFA's honest and dependable George Will give the task to the Mexican Byron brothers, in association with whom Bobby Charlton in a past deal allegedly lost ``tens of thousands of Pounds"?

But then, there's always a tickets farce.

In Spain, in France. And in England, in 1966, quantities of tickets disappeared from the White City headquarters. No one was named or prosecuted.

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