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re. michael owen - i don't think i've ever witnessed an england player make less of a contribution than the pathetic invisible man act he gave last night. did he even touch the ball in the first half hour? compare and contrast the admirable rooney, who was all over the pitch striving to create attacking situations, or playing his part as england's first line of defence. yes, he does have a temperament issue but how many of us didn't at the age of 18.

scholes, as you rightly point out, was also a total bust when it came to infusing the midfield any sort of forward impetus. everytime he received the ball he either killed the pace or sent his team mates up a dead-end. add that to his inability to score and it's hard to see why he is still an automatic selection.

on a more positive note, the defensive display was superb and the only way the french seemed likely to score was via a dead-ball situation - or two... hopefully, this resilience at the back will see us safely through the qualifying stage - along with a starting line-up that has vassell starting in place of owen.

Have you been at the Sanatogen? I cant believe how many words are in your post!, must be a record, I agree with you about Owen though.....

Well said, Woody.

Owen was totally anonoymous for large parts of the game.

After finally finding a pub in Chicago that was showing the game I wasn't even aware that Owen was playing until they showed the players walking off at half-time.

And why take Rooney off just moments after he'd won the penalty? He was our most threatening player.

And as for Gerrard? A 50k a week player who has obviously never heard of the old primary school saying of 'if in doubt, kick it out'.

Plus points?

King was excellent alongside Campbell and we can definitely win our next two games. Not that we have any choice in the matter...

As soon as Makelele got clattered, I KNEW ZZ would hit an equaliser. James was lucky to stay on, as was Silvestre. Excellent save from Barthez, but why did Becks take it considering him and Barthez practiced pens all the time at Man Utd.
France deserved the win, no doubts, but after watching Croatia and Swizterland, I feel England will progress.
Pity the UK based fans weren't as behaved as their travelling counterparts who did themselves proud after the result. Still, theres a few weeks yet for some upturned police cars and trashed bars and casualties at hospitals

Team politics aside, it was bloody awful evening for the Liverpool contingent: Heskey's lumbering uselessness, Owen seemingly allergic to the ball, Gerrard's misjudgement, ex-keeper James' pissing it away...

All this and the 'Gerrard's off to Chelsea ' circus starts up. Still, you'll never weep alone.

Theres no doubt that the second goal was due to a rush of blood

Just watched the England penalty again...as i suspected Barthez came off his line a good foot as he's not allowed to do...when are the Refs going to pull this up?

Its as bad as the last defender taking down a striker IMO or Defenders pulling shirts at corners in the box to stop movement

A real blight on the game that no one at Fifa seems to be doing anything about

cheers
B....OZ

Heskey is a Brum player now - phew!

Wasn't Owen worth ?40m at the world cup? I heard that he's down to ?14m six months ago. Maybe 'Pool will get ?4m at this rate.

Made me ashamed to be a Liverpool fan.

And yet England still led 1-0 deep into injury time
carrying those 4 players

Me thinks you might be over exaggerating how bad their performances were

You can only play as well as your opposition lets you

cheers
B....OZ