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Pressure cooker Heat is on England's Keegan to deliver at Euro 2000
Posted: Friday June 02, 2000 05:03 PM
LONDON (AP) -- With eye-catching stars such as David Beckham, Steve McManaman and Michael Owen, a colorful coach in Kevin Keegan and an army of noisy, sometimes violent fans, England will attract plenty of attention during the European soccer Championship. Until the medals are handed out. There's a strong possibility that the players and fans will be back home by the time the Euros reach the final stages. The reason? England simply does not have the organization and talent to match Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands when it comes down to major championships. Just one World Cup triumph 36 years ago is an embarrassingly poor return for the nation that claims to have given the world the game of soccer. A glance at the list of 10 previous European Championship finals shows one glaring absentee. England has twice made it to the semifinal, including the last championship in 1996 when it was on home turf. While its leading clubs, Manchester United, Arsenal, Leeds and Chelsea, are making an impact in European competitions, much of their success is down to the foreign talent they have imported. Yet United and Arsenal have many of the players in Keegan's Euro 2000 squad. The problem Keegan has is getting them to play together as a team. With Real Madrid's Steve McManaman back to his best form, Beckham having a standout season for United, Alan Shearer banging in goals for Newcastle and Owen slowly returning to fill fitness, England has matchwinning players. But it doesn't manage to produce its best form when it pulls on an England shirt and only just gained a place in the championship by beating Scotland in a two-game playoff, losing the second match at Wembley. Looking at the goalkeepers, the defense, the midfield and the attack, there seem to be weaknesses everywhere. Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman has masses of experience but is beginning to creak like a veteran while his understudies, Nigel Martyn and David James, are making embarrassing blunders for their clubs. Sol Campbell, Tony Adams, Martin Keown and Gareth Southgate appear solid central defenders, especially in the air. But time and again they have been caught out by fleet footed forwards and the Portuguese, Germans and Romanians can't wait to face them in the group games. In midfield, England has failed to produce the sort of playmaker that sparks other teams. Paul Gascoigne's career fell apart too soon and, although Beckham sees himself in that role, Keegan is likely to field him out on the right where he currently is most effective. Paul Scholes could wind up to be England's most impressive player in central midfield behind the front men and is a proven goalscorer. Up front, Keegan badly needs to find the right blend. Shearer is likely to be the mainstay of the attack, supported by any of the Liverpool trio -- Owen, Emile Heskey and Robbie Fowler -- or Sunderland's Kevin Phillips or Manchester United's Andy Cole. Another weakness in the England setup is the lack of natural left sided players. Injuries have robbed him of Chelsea's Graeme Le Saux and Jason Wilcox of Leeds and Keegan has had to draft Aston Villa teenage defender Gareth Barry into his provisional squad earlier than expected. Perhaps the huge level of expectation back home could be England's biggest enemy, however. Whenever the national team goes into action, a huge wave of optimism goes with the players and, time and again, the bubble gets burst before the end of the first round. The England coach is feeling it already. "I feel very, very excited," Keegan said. "The down side of that is that you will probably get nervous towards the start of the competition because you realize what is at stake. "You know the nation are behind you and they expect you to deliver. But I also think players need to feel tensions and be nervous before they go out to play. That helps the adrenaline to get going." Keegan, two-time European player of the year in his days with Liverpool and Hamburg, is an effervescent personality whose optimism appears unbounded. He'll need it at the Euros if he's not to follow Ron Greenwood, Bobby Robson, Graham Taylor and Terry Venables as England coaches who failed to deliver the title.
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