Sir Walter Scott would have recognised the emotion: in times
of desperation, call in the cavalry. So galloping in stage right: Emile
William Ivanhoe Heskey - splendidly named by a father entranced with Scott's
tale of a returning Crusader - to bludgeon England towards the promised
land.
If even Heskey admitted surprise upon his recall to England duty last
week, Steve McClaren was at least showing consistency in his response
to impending doom. When his creatively challenged line-ups struggled to
deliver chances, the manager went back to basics, and back on his own
judgment, to recall David Beckham. His attack remained sterile in open
play, but Beckham's dead-ball mastery at least provided goals from corners
and free-kicks.
Deprived of his grinning joker by transatlantic injury, McClaren simply
delved further back into the Sven-Goran Eriksson playbook, reinstating
a battering-ram forward once considered fundamental to the England attack.
That Heskey hadn't been part of an England squad for 37 months emphasised
the emergency.
Now 29, and two transfers and a relegation away from his peak as England
and Liverpool regular, Heskey donned the No 9 shirt. Restored, word had
it, when Michael Owen indicated he would be happier playing alongside
his old mucker than Alan Smith or Andrew Johnson.
At least Heskey performed to type - his game a familiar mixture of the
effective and the infuriating. Shimon Gershon was visibly uncomfortable
with marking the 6ft 2in forward. Again and again, Gershon dropped off
Heskey, allowing him the space to head, knock, or control and pass the
ball on. Inside 20 minutes, Heskey had played Owen into shooting position,
made space for Steven Gerrard to win a dangerous free-kick, and hustled
the visiting keeper into an errant clearance.
Less impressive was his play when asked to do more than set up a team-mate.
When Owen laid the ball back to him, the Wigan forward leaned back and
fired over from 12 yards. A couple more passes got lost between Heskey's
feet, then a towering back-post header ended up wide of that upright.
The clever play of Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole was helping, as
did the former's nerve-calming opener, but Heskey and Owen gave the appearance
of a genuine striking partnership.
Behind them, McClaren had wisely steered away from fielding two injured
central midfielders in Gerrard and Owen Hargreaves, whose place was taken
by Gareth Barry. Less comforting was the thought of what happened the
last time an Aston Villa defender started in the England's midfield -
Gareth Southgate's appearance preceding Kevin Keegan's resignation.
Heskey had sat on the bench the day of that 1-0 loss to Germany at the
old Wembley, but four minutes into yesterday's second half he helped secure
McClaren's immediate future. Once again granted freedom to chest down
a long ball, he worked possession out to Micah Richards. The right-back
passed to Barry, who found Owen on the diagonal. As Large held off one
defender, Little turned and cannoned a second beyond Dudu Aouate.
And that was more or less that. Richards powered in the kind of header
you imagine Heskey scoring, he kept working until Johnson replaced him
and England had their first New Wembley win.
Heskey and Owen go back some way. Paired together in the England under-18
team that finished third in the 1996 European Championship, two seasons
later they were scoring together for the under-21s. That earned Owen a
call-up to the senior squad for the 1998 World Cup and that evening of
destruction against Argentina.
Heskey's England appearances became more frequent after he joined Liverpool
in the summer of 2000 and Alan Shearer retired from international football.
In their 12 games playing alongside each other from the kick-off, Owen
scored 11 times and Heskey thrice. Their Liverpool record tells a similar
story - 117 goals from 172 joint appearances.
The problem was that like the ugly pal at a nightclub, Heskey's work went
disregarded as his mate did most of the scoring. Displaced by Wayne Rooney
and abused by the England faithful, he last represented his country in
June 2004, a late substitute whose contribution was to clatter Claude
Makelele on the edge of the penalty area allowing Zinedine Zidane to instigate
a painful European Championship comeback. Cue the opprobrium of a nation.
Not yesterday. Heskey was back in the fold, back to basics, and back in
the good books of the English nation.
, September 9, 2007
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