Football: Owen courts a quick start

England's striking prodigy is prepared to line up beside Alan Shearer at apex of three lions' attack. By Glenn Moore

ON THE wall behind Michael Owen, as he sat talking in England's temporary press centre, was a huge poster of Teddy Sheringham celebrating an international goal. The 18 year old did not look back once. He did not need to: it is now Sheringham, 14 years and 28 caps his senior, who is looking over his shoulder.

On Tuesday Owen played up front with Alan Shearer in England's behind- closed-doors friendly with Caen. A sign of things to come? Or part of the errant Sheringham's punishment? Either way that Owen is seen as a genuine contender to break up the established and successful Shearer and Sheringham partnership underlines his dramatic rise.

This time last year, while England were winning Le Tournoi in France, Owen was with the Under-20 side in Malaysia, a single league appearance to his name. "Don't tell the coaches as it was on pretty late but we sat up and watched the matches," remembered Owen yesterday. Now he is hoping to start England's first World Cup match since Italia 90, when he was 10 years old, against Tunisia on Monday.

"I want to start, I feel I'm ready to start, but I'm not confident of doing so," he said. "Teddy and Alan have been very successful together for England and they are the favourites. But no country will finish with the team it begins with so it is not just down to who starts."

Shearer and Sheringham look a better balanced partnership than Shearer and Owen, not least because the team do not get so stretched out, but the Liverpool forward sees no reason why he and Shearer should not forge a good partnership.

"Alan and I can certainly play together. We are different: he's a more physical presence than me. At the start of the season a lot of people were saying I couldn't play with Robbie Fowler. You can make any partnership work. Once you play with someone you get to knows their runs and whatever. All you need is one game and if you're intelligent you quickly pick up what they do. Then you keep learning, you learn from every game.

"It worked fine in Caen. I played well. Although I didn't score I was through on a one-on-one and got dragged back. It would have been a clear penalty in the World Cup and a sending off but because it was a friendly they didn't bother."

He may not be sure of starting but Owen is confident of scoring if he does. "I always expect to score, you've got to," he said. "You have to think you can cause anyone in the world problems."

After watching Scotland in action on Wednesday that includes Brazil. "Ronaldo showed flashes of brilliance but the Scots did well," said Owen. "No one is going to be that fearful of Brazil now, they have a lot of individual talent, especially going forward, but looked a bit suspect at the back. The Scots got a lot of chances.

"I always look at a player's weaknesses rather than his strengths. You try to see where you can hurt them most. They play two wing-backs at full- back [Cafu and Roberto Carlos]. They are both great going forward but you have to question them going back towards their own goal."

In print Owen's confidence can appear big-headed but in the flesh the words are delivered in matter-of-fact fashion. He remains apparently unaffected by the attention and praise. A few minutes earlier Glenn Hoddle had compared him to Ronaldo in the way he turns players. Was this a comparison too far?

"It's always nice to be compared like that, it's great to hear. There are similarities as we like to run at players with the ball but I have a lot to do to get to his standard. Hopefully one day I'll be something like that."

"His temperament is above his years," Hoddle had also said. "He lacks experience but the whole squad lacks World Cup experience. He can cause problems whether he starts or comes on as a substitute. He adds a different dimension with his pace.

"He has two great assets for a striker. He has pace with and without the ball, and he has movement. I worked with a lot of strikers who had electric pace but not known when to use it - Michael does."

The other quality Owen has is desire. Asked if there was anything he could not do [he also plays golf off eight, the best handicap in the squad] he replied that his family thought he was a bad loser.

"To me that's a quality," he added. "I hate losing at anything, Alan Shearer is the same."

So when was the last time he was hurt by defeat?

"About an hour ago when Rio Ferdinand beat me in the driving machine."

That Ferdinand is banned from driving the real thing for his drink-driving offence presumably made it even worse. "He's practising for when he gets his licence back," said Owen with a grin.

Today he is competing with Sheringham again, on the golf course. Sheringham, naturally, partners Shearer and, in La Manga, they beat Owen and Paul Scholes.

"We're out for revenge," said Owen.