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England adds some spice to the attack
Posted: Friday June 26, 1998 07:35 PM
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Michael Owen has charged England's attack with speed and the ability to execute close on goal (AP) |
England has
been waiting 12 years to get revenge for the "Hand of God."
That chance comes Tuesday when the England meets Argentina at
St. Etienne. Diego Maradona, who scored that controversial goal in one of
the 1986 quarterfinals, might be at Geoffroy Guichard, but this time he'll
have to watch from the press box.
If Alan Shearer and his mates can play the way they did Friday night, it
wouldn't be an upset at all to see England beat the highly thought of
Argentines. The English played with flair against Colombia and
easily could have scored more than the two goals they did. The English
attacked, attacked and attacked, and they did so with renewed
confidence.
England put on one of the best performances of the tournament, and the
Argentines, despite being the only unscored upon team at this juncture,
should be wary. Very wary. Michael Owen has added spice (pardon us, David
Beckham) to English game. One wonders what took coach Glenn Hoddle so long
to work him into the starting lineup.
To his credit Owen has backed up the statement he made last month.
"You don't go (into the World Cup) fearful of anyone," the 18-year-old
striker said. "You go in knowing you can cause problems. You don't look at
the players' positive points, you look at their weaknesses and try to see
where you can hurt them most."
With his great speed, Owen can hurt the defense. It remains to be see
whether or not he'll be able to get behind the Argentines, who have not
been tested defensively at the finals.
The pick here is England 2, Argentina 1 -- and on a golden goal. But we
doubt anyone will punch the ball in with his hand this time.
Player of the day: Carlos Valderrama. C'mon, it was his last
international match. He went out the same way he made a name for himself.
Looking lethargic to the spectators but always feared by the opposition
because of his lethal passing. Colombia didn't score, and exited the
tournament after the first round again, but it wasn't El Pibe's fault.
Goal of the day: David Beckham. It was his first goal ever for
England and it came off a gorgeous free kick. Beckham said after the match
that he knew that 30 yards was the right distance for him to have a go. And
it went, curling as it cleared the five-man wall, and finding the left side
of the net. Definitely the prettiest free kick of the finals.
Quote of the day: "Overall it was a terrific performance.
Tactically we got it right ... the amount of chances we created, we could
have scored four or five. There's more to come from us." -- England coach
Glenn Hoddle.
Outlook for the second round: Would you be surprised if Brazil suddenly
started looking like Brazil? We wouldn't either. Especially with the
Brazilians coming off a loss. They play Chile on Saturday
in what might be the end-to-end match of the day. Chile, unfortunately, has
looked susceptible in the back and Brazil should easily be able to exploit
that deficiency.
One would also suspect that Ronaldo will finally have that magical match.
Brazil should move on to the next round -- we'll say 3-1.
The other match on Saturday is Italy-Norway and that
figures to be a bit more defensive. The Italians have been picking up
momentum and we look for some more magic from Roberto Baggio -- he'll score
the only goal of the match late.
Other teams which we figure will get through are France, Nigeria, Germany, the
Netherlands
, Croatia
and, as we said earlier, England.
Part of the fun will be seeing which teams we are wrong about and which
ones we actually get right.
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