Soccer: Owen injury adds to Cup woes

There is no end, for the bizarre moment at least, to the dangerous but so far mercifully preserved fortune of Sven Goran Eriksson.

Yesterday, if his countrymen of Sweden had enjoyed any justice, or a moment or two of greater calm when the hard, destructive work had been done, it is he who would be contemplating the roaring progress of Germany in front of a nation obsessed with their chances of winning a fourth World Cup.

England's coach survived for the softer option against Ecuador.

It should be a matter for some fleeting celebration - and certainly the hordes of English support were provoked into a deep-throated version of the national anthem - but the cheers could not be other than hollow.

Even when disaster rises around his neck like an unstoppable tide - on this occasion one of the utmost poignancy, which appears to have left Michael Owen out of this World Cup - there is usually a shaft of light, a possibility of something to be retrieved.

So it was when his team scrambled a 2-2 draw, one that would have been beyond them if Eriksson had not torn up another master plan. This one was to leave Steven Gerrard seething on the bench.

It didn't survive the chaos that came to a day that started out intriguingly and finished in both tragedy and deep doubt.

After the lion's roar of Ghana and the power and beauty of Argentina and Spain, there was the prospect of a visit from those other denizens of the football jungle ... the cat and the mouse.

Luis Fernandez, the coach of Ecuador, inevitably sparked such downbeat speculation when he left five of his first-teamers out of the Group A battle against Germany.

The prize for victory was the likelihood of avoiding England. Germany would have the crowd and the growing national belief and perhaps any official benefits of the doubt; why not wave the Fatherland through, and take a chance with the underwhelming English - or Swedes?

Eriksson had made his own contribution to the debate by leaving out Gerrard, apparently because of the risk of another yellow card which would have ruled him out of the first knock-out round. It was a move mocked by Sweden's Lars Lagerback, who had four men on yellow cards.

England's game is more about physical power and some sweeping individual talent, and if the side weren't at their best, in the first half they were profoundly better than in their opening matches against Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago.

This didn't automatically catapult them into the upper reaches of a tournament that has produced some stunning levels of touch and imagination, but it was unquestionably a point of hope, a surging of blood that had seemed to be congealing around a failure of both belief and technique.

Unfortunately the Swedes also felt some stirrings of their own. It meant that what was supposed to be a smooth passage into knock-out play against Ecuador became another desperate dogfight. It didn't help that England's defence suffered something close to a collective nervous breakdown in the second half.

England's need for some statement of serious intent, a raising of their fists against the growing sense that this is a World Cup beyond their reach became quite huge in that moment when Owen crumpled to the turf with a look of both fear and anguish on his face.

This is a team in search not only of consistent form but also itself. There were times yesterday when the scent was more than elusive.

Indeed, the question had to be asked again: under Sven Goran Eriksson has it ever truly existed?

- INDEPENDENT