the word

12/11/09

Another International week, another step closer to South Africa 2010 World Cup, which by the way I am hoping to go to and will be crossing more than my fingers in pursuit of it. England will play Brazil in a friendly in Qatar on 14 November and again Michael Owen, 29, has been overlooked and omitted from the squad putting his World Cup hopes in jeopardy. England Manager Fabio Capello recently called the Manchester United striker his “tormentor’’ because of the endless talk of Owen’s involvement in SA or the lack of it.

Sir Alex Ferguson used the forward 7 minutes from time after falling behind to Chelsea at the Bridge last weekend, this in itself shows Sir Alex’s faith in Owen’s ability to change the score line which is exactly what he did against Manchester City earlier in the season. Owen stats are banded about all the time in the media and it is true the numbers do speak for themselves, we cannot argue with 89 caps (77starts) 40 goals, a proven track record since 1996 in a senior international jersey.

The most important statistic that has gone unnoticed so far, is that in the last 9 seasons, practically a decade that is, Owen has scored more goals in the last half of the season from January to May than the first. If that pattern continues this season then rather than be niggled and tormented by his decisions, the 63 year old Italian will feel tortured knowing that not taking Owen is too big a risk.

Let’s move away from quantitative analysis and rationally consider that in the instance England are in desperately in need of a goal in a crucial game with 20 minutes remaining, who would you want to see come off the bench? Who is a natural goal poacher, who is effortlessly in the right place at the right time, who has the ability to lose their defender and nick a last minute match winner, who is proven on an international level? Why did the most successful manager in the Premier League want Mr Owen in his squad at Manchester United this season. Let’s forget club allegiance for now and think about England, assuming Rooney is a definite starter regardless of formation, which striker would you really want in that squad to fulfil the role of coming off the bench to score a vital goal when it counts. Would this really be taking a chance on the unknown or would this be introducing a tried and tested match winner at international level?

Will Michael Owen go to the World Cup...we shall see?

Apart from England and the obvious threats that Spain and Brazil pose, there have be recent mumblings in media circles about The Ivory Coast as potential winners and 33/1 when i last checked. Undoubtedly, we can’t ignore a team that includes Didier Drogba, Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue and they didn’t lose a single match in qualifying.

Consider this though; perhaps we should keep one sneaky eye on dark horse debutants in the competition Serbia. They have two of the Premier Leagues top defenders in Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea) and Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), a wealth of talent in midfield with the 22 year old pacey left winger Zoran Tosic (Manchester United) and Serbia’s answer to Peter Crouch Valencia’s 6 ft 8 giant Nikola Zigic. Fairly prolific I’m sure you will agree and currently sitting at around 50/1 to win, maybe worth an each way bet?