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[Blwe_torch]

Owen's failings signal the end of an attacking era
By : Alan Smith in Nuremberg, 16/06/2006
The Telegraph.co.uk



Talk about the fine line between success and failure. Wayne Rooney was just getting his orders on the touchline when Michael Owen missed a sitter from David Beckham's free kick.
That fluffed header from four yards out, which followed another glaring miss in the first half, might just be the last we see of Owen starting a game in this World Cup.
Sven-Goran Eriksson had clearly run out of patience. A striker who had served the England coach so well over five years was now surplus to requirements.
The Swede couldn't wait. With Rooney champing at the bit, his manager flung open the stable door to pair his talisman with Peter Crouch, and so introduce a strike partnership against Trinidad and Tobago that should stay together for the foreseeable future.
Watching from the bench as his team-mates pushed and probed, eventually getting their reward through Crouch's far-post header and Steven Gerrard's piledriver, Owen must have felt like an outsider for the first time since exploding on the scene with that wonder goal against Argentina.
 
For him, it had been an evening of 'if onlys' in a muggy Frankenstadion. Battling to regain full match fitness, and prove all the doubters wrong after a dreadfully lethargic performance against Paraguay, he needed to do what he had previously managed 36 times in an England shirt - score.
It was as simple as that for a player whose game is wholly based on finding the net. He did, admittedly, look a little sharper than he had in Frankfurt, making more darting runs and providing a target for team-mates to hit.
Yet, when the vital moment came - when he usually steps up to make his mark - he embarrassingly forgot his lines. The first bit was fine. Owen was first on the scene when Shaka Hislop parried Frank Lampard's swerving shot.
What came next, however, betrayed a set of instincts far from razor sharp. Latching on to the rebound, he clumsily fell on the ball in his anxiety to finish, the ball screwing horribly wide off a stray knee.
It was a golden opportunity, a chance to show Eriksson that, with Rooney ready to pounce, he was still worth a punt. Unfortunately, the only thing it showed was his lack of confidence.
In fairness, Owen was far from alone in missing great chances. Rarely can Lampard have tightened up so badly with the ball at his feet in the penalty area. Playing for Chelsea, he might easily have helped himself to a hat-trick.
From England's point of view, the game was crying out for some urgency, an increase in tempo to force the stubborn Soca Warriors on to the back foot.
With England missing Gary Neville's raids and crosses up the right flank, with David Beckham playing his own special brand of standing-still football and Joe Cole drifting inside to make the pitch narrow, you would have paid any amount of money to call on a pacy customer prepared to take on his man.
Cue Aaron Lennon, who entered the scene at the same time as Rooney. Nerves? You've got to be joking.
The little Tottenham winger took on the challenge with all the verve of someone who realised that a goalless draw could lead to an unseemly scrap with Sweden in the last group game.
His adventure and speed helped to revitalise England. With a healthy dollop of urgency added to proceedings, England began to look like a proper team again.
As for Rooney, well, what a phenomenal character. He seems capable of rewriting the rulebook, disproving all the accepted knowledge about recovering from injury and regaining match sharpness.
His mere presence galvanised the Three Lions and shoved them towards a precious win.
Owen, meanwhile, can only look forward to a spell on the bench during the big games just round the corner.
It won't do much for his pride, but he has to accept that, as England fumble in the dark for the right shape, personnel and approach, his presence in the side won't be required.
As Rooney returns, Owen steps down to herald a new attacking era. After this nerve-racker, where that will lead is impossible to tell.