 England skipper David Beckham
completed a glorious one-man
revenge mission by blasting
his country to World Cup victory
over Argentina in Sapporo this
afternoon.
Beckham kept his nerve to drive
home a 42nd minute penalty and
take England to the brink of
the last 16 after Michael Owen
had tumbled under Mauricio Pochettino's
woeful challenge.
All the pent-up frustration
of four years' hurt since that
infamous dismissal in St Etienne
found wonderful release as the
Manchester United man raced
away to celebrate after beating
Pablo Cavallero with a confident
strike.
The win, their first against
Argentina since 1966, was founded
on an inspirational midfield
performance from Nicky Butt. While Beckham will typically
capture the headlines, the unassuming
Butt deserves equal credit after
recovering from the knee injury
which kept him out of Sunday's
draw with Sweden to dominate
the midfield exchanges.
It means England now need just
a point from their meeting with
already-eliminated Nigeria next
Wednesday to advance to the
next stage, while Argentina
must beat Sweden at the same
time if they are not to tumble
out of the competition at the
opening stage.
England had been under pressure
in the opening stages as Juan
Sebastian Veron and Ariel Ortega
tried to impose their authority
on the game. David Seaman was forced to
collect a deep cross to deny
Gabriel Batistuta a scoring
opportunity and the Arsenal
keeper then made a smart save
from Javier Zanetti's 20-yard
shot. Zanetti also caught Owen Hargreaves
with a tackle which left the
Bayern Munich man needing extensive
treatment, and eventually forced
him off altogether.
England though continued to
battle and as the match descended
into a physical contest, gradually
gained in confidence. Having already been yellow
carded for a brutal late challenge
on Ashley Cole, Batistuta tried
the patience of Italian referee
Pierluigi Collina by leading
with his elbow as he tried to
challenge Beckham for a midfield
header. The England skipper blasted
the free-kick into the wall
but the fractured nature of
the contest continued as Diego
Simeone fouled Paul Scholes
before Cole caught Ortega with
a crude challenge. Cole was finally booked after
being lured into a late tackle
by Ortega and with Argentina
finding space down the right,
the Arsenal full-back was starting
to become exposed, particularly
as substitute Trevor Sinclair
was concentrating most of his
energies on attacking the opposition
defence.
However, while that was of
some concern to England, they
were also starting to present
Argentina with some severe problems. Owen ran at Walter Samuel inside
the South Americans' penalty
area and found enough space
to drive a shot past Pablo Cavallero
which agonisingly crashed back
off a post.
Seaman saved Batistuta's header
as Argentina countered, but
Sinclair - whose arrival allowed
Scholes to move into his preferred
central position - weaved his
way into the box at the other
end before producing a weak
cross which was easily cleared. Owen and Butt combined to set
up Scholes for a long range
effort which struck an Argentine
defender.
 Within a minute, England
were in front. The memory of Owen running
at them four years ago is still
fresh and when the Liverpool
hit-man picked up possession
on the edge of the area, Pochettino
panicked. The full-back lunged in, caught
Owen just below the knee and
when the striker tumbled down,
Collina pointed to the spot. Beckham took a deep breath,
then strode up and smashed the
ball past Cavallero before racing
to the touchline where he was
mobbed by ecstatic team-mates.
After surviving until half-time,
England almost doubled their
advantage within three minutes
of the re-start when Owen took
on Pochettino again then drove
just wide of the left-hand post
with Cavallero beaten again. Veron was a notable absentee
at the start of the second period,
replaced by Pablo Aimar presumably
through injury, although his
performance had been largely
ineffective.
Scholes was the next to try
his luck for England but this
time the Argentine keeper was
up to the task, beating away
the Manchester United man's
long range shot. Beckham muscled his way past
Diego Placente but couldn't
find the target from eight yards
as England continued to press. Heskey was replaced by Teddy
Sheringham after 55 minutes
and his first touch was a brilliant
volley from Scholes' crossfield
pass which Cavallero punched
away.
Argentina were reeling and
threw on Hernan Crespo for Batistuta
as the hour mark passed, followed
shortly afterwards by Claudio
Lopez who replaced Gonzalez
as the South Americans tried
to get themselves back into
the game.
The balance did start to shift
as the clock ticked down, England
not knowing whether to press
forward or hold their advantage
and Sven-Goran Eriksson made
the decision for them by taking
off Owen for Wayne Bridge and
leaving Sheringham up front
on his own.
Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell stood particularly tall and David Seaman pulled off a couple of spectacular saves. Waves of South American pressure paid no dividends.
There may yet be life for England after the World Cup's "Group of Death".
Argentina: Pablo Cavallero,
Mauricio Pochettino, Walter
Samuel, Diego Placente, Javier
Zanetti, Diego Simeone, Juan
Sebastian Veron (Pablo Aimar
45), Juan Pablo Sorin, Ariel
Ortega, Gabriel Batistuta (Hernan
Crespo 60), Kily Gonzalez (Claudio
Lopez 64)
Subs Not Used: Matias Almeyda,
Roberto Ayala, Roberto Bonano,
German Burgos, Claudio Caniggia,
Jose Chamot, Marcelo Gallardo,
Claudio Husain, Gustavo Lopez
Booked: Batistuta
England: David Seaman, Danny
Mills, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand,
Sol Campbell, David Beckham,
Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, Owen
Hargreaves (Trevor Sinclair
19), Michael Owen (Wayne Bridge
80), Emile Heskey (Teddy Sheringham
56)
Subs Not Used: Wes Brown, Joe
Cole, Kieron Dyer, Robbie Fowler,
David James, Martin Keown, Nigel
Martyn, Gareth Southgate, Darius
Vassell.
Booked: Ashley Cole, Heskey
Attendance: 35,927
Referee: Pierluigi Collina (Italy) |
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