Burden of proof falls on Owen

Although Glen Hoddle hasn't yet announced his team to face Colombia at Lens this evening, the expectation is that Michael Owen will share with Alan Shearer the task of tracking down the goals needed to keep England in the competition.

David Beckham is also likely to be given a place in the starting line-up as Hoddle prepares to go with the team which was in situ when Romania conjured up that last-gasp goal that threatens to weigh like a millstone on England's hopes of progressing. That their performance perked up after Paul Ince's injury had brought Beckham into the team and Teddy Sheringham's ongoing problems had forced the manager to gamble on the 18-year-old Liverpool player is scarcely in question.

Owen, in particular, brought a cutting edge to an attack which had earlier functioned without any of the incisive running needed to unsettle teams well versed in the arts of blanket defence. The question at issue now is whether he can extend the dynamism of his brief appearances so far into a corresponding effort over 90 minutes.

On the evidence of his first, explosive season with Liverpool he has the temperament to match the skills which prompted Roy Evans to wax lyrical, even before he had made his first team debut at Anfield.

Yet it is asking much of a youngster to step into the breach and rescue older, more seasoned team-mates who, on the evidence of their two games to date, have shrivelled in the intense pressures of World Cup competition.

Meanwhile, as always seems to be the case when England play abroad, the build-up to the game itself has been clouded by the threat of crowd violence, a factor which will inevitably have its effect on the players.

On the reasonable assumption that Romania will record their third consecutive win in the remaining game in Group G, against Tunisia in the Stade de France this evening, the rewards for an England win will be a meeting with Argentina in the next round.

That's an assignment to fill even the most intrepid with a sense of impending doom, but the mood of disillusionment in the England camp is such that progress to the last 16 would be regarded as something of a minor triumph.

Colombia's performances here have done little to suggest that they are capable of enriching the South American challenge for the trophy. Against Romania in their opening game, they were possibly flattered to lose by only a goal and there was nothing in their 1-0 success over Tunisia to suggest that they had profited from the experience.

Carlos Valderrama, their extrovert midfielder, fits the description of a man who may just cause a problem or two for England, but with Faustino Asprilla gone from the squad, they scarcely have the firepower to worry the better organised defences.

Judged on what we have seen so far, England's formation scarcely deserves to fit into that category with players of the experience of Tony Adams and Gary Neville, both of whom have proved their worth over and over again at club level, betraying all the uncertainty of novices in international football.

That, perhaps is symptomatic of England's problems in World Cup competition - burdened by history, seasoned professionals find even the simple things fringed with treachery.

England will also be looking for a vastly improved contribution from Shearer who, apart from his goal against Tunisia, has done little to burnish his image as one of the better strikers in the game.

There are those who believe that the England captain will come good before their involvement in the championship ends. The more realistic hope is that Owen can channel his precocious talent into a match-winning performance.