CLASH IN GENEVA Watch out, Owen Ayala praise masks a seven-year itch to avenge wonder goal
ROBERTO Ayala, the hatchet man of Argentine football, was purring like a docile pussycat as he extolled the virtues of Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen yesterday. But his eyes betrayed his nature.
The Valencia defender may have lost the captaincy of his country to Villarreal’s Juan Pablo Sorin, but he is still the central figure for the Albiceleste and he knows that, at 32, his time in the national side is drawing to a close.
If he sounded as though he was offering an olive branch to Michael Owen for the way the then teenager skinned him en route to a memorable goal in 1998, he has waited a long time for his revenge.
Ayala was unfit to take part in Argentina’s defeat by England in Sapporo but he recalled Owen’s 1998 performance in St Etienne with great clarity.
‘ He was fresh, exciting and young,’ he said. ‘ Now time has passed and everybody knows of his ability. We certainly do. He has proved himself with his goals for England and Real Madrid.
‘ Now he has another young partner in Wayne Rooney and together they are very special, maybe the best partnership in the world. Rooney is a remarkable talent — not a typical English player, but very special.
‘ He has great movement, vision and passing. He scores some great goals and he has a temperament. Most of the big players have that. But as a team England have not been playing to full potential.’
Neither have Argentina. A l t h o u g h t h e y q u a l i f i e d comfortably for Germany next year under coach Jose Pekerman, they are in a process of reconstruction with some of the established stars from 1998 and 2002 now out of contention.
There is still continued debate as to whether Juan Sebastian Veron should be recalled to the side (he has not played since the Athens Olympics) but he has not been alone in his exile.
Big names like Ariel Ortega, D i e g o S i m e o n e , G a b r i e l Batistuta and Kily Gonzalez are also now missing.
Pekerman, who worked his way through the ranks of the Argentine Football Federation, has been involved in the process of change — integrating older players like Ayala, Sorin, Walter Samuel and Javier Zanetti (all veterans of Japan 2002) with a new generation he has nurtured.
He is trying to build for next summer around the unquestioned talents of playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme.
It was Riquelme who ran the game when Argentina conquered Brazil 3- 1 in Buenos Aires in June to qualify for Germany with three games to spare, scoring one of the goals with Hernan Crespo claiming the other two. Since then, however, there have been defensive problems, with Brazil gaining revenge via a 4-1 victory in the final of the Confederations Cup.
To accommodate Riquelme’s expansive talents, the Argentina defence has been playing deeper. But the concession of space, especially down the flanks, has put pressure on a back line which will be missing Manchester United full back Gabriel Heinze.
In reality, the goal supply is down to a trickle. Since the victory over Brazil, Argentina have lost 1-0 in their final World Cup games to Paraguay and Uruguay, although they did win comfortably 2- 0 against Peru between those defeats.
They have impressive forward strength, not just in 30-year- old Crespo but also in younger talents like Barcelona’s 18-year- old wonder Lionel Messi, suspended for this game, Carlos Tevez, likely to be the next star to move to Europe, and Seville’s Javier Saviola.
Crespo, as a senior player, has been particularly critical. ‘ We have lost our direction,’ he said. ‘ We have gone from having a certain pause in our play to now being just slow. We are not finishing off moves because we are trying to walk the ball in.’
Diego Maradona believes Veron should be reinstated, describing his absence as ‘a lack o f r e s p e c t f o r A r g e n t i n e football’. But the senior players resist that view, believing the ex- Manchester United and Chelsea player’s aloofness jeopardised team spirit. A diplomatic Ayala said: ‘ Maradona is an icon of Argentine football and everyone recognises what he has done for his country in the past. But Pekerman is also highly respected as a good man and a leader. He is the man taking us to Germany and the players are completely behind him.’
Nothing, it seems, is ever straightforward in Argentine football, as England are likely to discover tomorrow.
s.curry@dailymail.co.uk