England's 2-0 win against Colombia last night can only be described as highly professional and highly satisfactory. For my money, this was the classic rebound performance from a side that is still kicking itself for having conceded a late winner to Romania in Toulouse on Monday night.
England looked comfortable throughout this game and, but for some good goalkeeping from Colombia's Farid Mondragon, should have won the game by four or five clear goals. England got everything right last night against a Colombia side that had looked moderate in its two previous games against Romania (1-0 loss) and Tunisia (1-0 win) and which confirmed that impression last night. I think the most important thing about England's performance was the manner in which they set about the task, immediately taking the game to the Colombians and not allowing them time to settle into a more languid Latin rhythm.
I think, too, that it helped England enormously that all the players knew exactly what was required. Against Romania, the English players may have unwittingly relaxed after Michael Owen's equaliser, thus allowing the Romanians snatch the late winner. This time, they played for only one result - a win.
By comparison with the side which lost to Romania, this looked a different team. The $60 million question, however, is how much is England's improvement due to a good English performance and how much due to the fact that Colombia are a moderate side ? The answer is probably a bit of both. Inevitably, two English players, David Beckham and Michael Owen, will be singled out for justified praise this morning. Owen's pace and his willingness to run at defences makes him a total nightmare for most defenders who have to choose between trying to tackle him and risk ending up on their backsides or trying to race him to the byline and risk being left far behind. His pace gives England a whole new set of attacking options. Both Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham tend to be one-paced and both tend to play down the middle which makes it relatively straight-forward for a defender to mark them, if not to stop them. Owen, on the other hand, is likely to pop up anywhere and he offers his team-mates the inviting possibility of a through-ball over the heads of the opposing defence at almost any moment. As for Beckham, we said earlier in the tournament that his exclusion from the side that beat Tunisia 2-0 could, in the end, prove a useful pyschological weapon for English coach Glenn Hoddle. Beckham has come back into the side desperately keen to make his mark and that is just what he did last night, not only with his beautifully struck free kick goal but also with his overall contribution.
I felt that, in particular, Beckham, Paul Ince and Paul Scholes form a highly effective and complementary midfield trio. Rumania's relatively comfortable 1-1 draw with Tunisia last night means, of course, the England finished second in Group G and now travel to Saint Etienne for by far their most difficult game of the tournament so far, against Argentina. Yesterday, the Argentinians once more did the bare minimum, winning more comfortably against Croatia than the final 1-0 scoreline might suggest.
Argentina are a very strong side, in every department. It is not just that they have players like Gabriel Batistuta and Ariel Ortega in attack but, in my opinion, all the players fielded so far look immensely impressive. Remember eight or nine of the normal firstchoice side play in Serie A and that, in itself, says enough about their overall quality. This could be one heck of a game but, at the moment, I make Argentina slight favourites. One thing is certain - whichever side wins this one will, the victor will send a strong messge to the rest of the tournament favourites who will know that at least one very serious obstacle lies between them and the World Cup title.
(In an interview with Paddy Agnew)
