June 15 – England Sail Past Dogs of War

IT is perhaps hard to think of it now, but back in 2002 Sven-Goran Eriksson was looking like the man England had been searching for for 30 years.

The Swede stepped in to take control after Kevin Keegan had overseen a dodgy start to the 2002 World Cup qualification campaign and while some top names in football including former England boss Glenn Hoddle were suggesting the 2002 tournament was perhaps already beyond England, Sven picked up the pieces and calmly masterminded the wins needed to get England to the finals – not least that night in Munich.

Once there, and buoyed by a jingoistic win over old foes Argentina, people began to believe this might be England’s year, particularly as many of the big names were knocked out early.

Could England go from being within a last-minute David Beckham free kick of not qualifying, to actually winning the tournament?

After coming through in second place in the group stage, England were drawn against Denmark for the second round match on this day, with a place in the quarter-finals at stake.

Unusually for England, the match was a cake walk, with none of the trademark sloppy defending, heart-breaking near misses or penalty shoot-out misery.

In fact it took just five minutes for England to go ahead after a header from Rio Ferdinand was fumbled into the net by Danish keeper Thomas Sorensen.

Fifteen minutes later England doubled their lead when Nicky Butt, enjoying the form of his life in an England shirt, flicked on a Trevor Sinclair cross to Michael Owen who slotted home from close range for his first goal of the tournament.

It got even better just before half time when Emile Heskey latched on to a David Beckham ball and blasted the ball into the back of the net for 3-0. It was his last competitive goal for England until he netted against Kazakhstan just a few weeks ago.

England were cruising and, with it seemingly ‘job done’ the second half drifted to its conclusion with no more goals.

Eriksson was pleased with the result saying: Eriksson added: “Three nil is maybe too much but we won and we’re in the quarter-finals. In the second half we defended very well. Denmark had the ball a lot but didn’t create very much.”

Captain Beckham was keen to point out it had been a better performance than the 0-0 draw against Nigeria in the last group match. “We have done our job, played some great football, and in the second half we just made sure of it.

“I was pleased for Emile and Michael. It was nice for Michael to get his first goal of the competition. The whole team came in for a bit of stick after the last game. One person described it as awful but we have done a good job today.

“I’m not bothered if we get Brazil or Belgium. I want to play the best team and the best players. Both are good teams. Whoever we get we are in the quarter-finals and happy.”

The result did nothing to dampen the build up of expectation among England fans that this time they really could go all the way – stoked up by the media of course. The BBC’s Phil McNulty reported after the match: “The road to glory is open – and England’s journey is gathering an ominous momentum as the serious World Cup business begins.”

Of course, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Daivd Seaman would eventually rain on the parade when England again failed at the quarter-final hurdle.

England enjoyed another great victory on this day in 1996 when a bit of magic from Gazza sent Wembley wild.