He is 17

He is 17.”Rooney’s cause was helped by Eriksson’s belated reversion to the diamond midfield with which England dug themselves out of the mire in Bratislava. People should not expect him to always be one of the best players. He shows no fear and understands football, he can link between forwards and midfielders.”Already Rooney looks as if he could replicate in Portugal next summer Michael Owen’s impact on the 1998 World Cup finals, but Eriksson cautioned: “We must take it easy One big game in the national team is not a career What he showed is that he is mature and ready. He made up his mind on Tuesday night, overruling doubts among some of the coaching staff, and told Rooney four hours before kick-off “Rooney said, ‘Ah-ha’, when I told him,” recalled Eriksson “He is very quiet, but not the nervous type.

The gamble followed similar ones, not always successful, with Gavin McCann, Ashley Cole, Owen Hargreaves, Darius Vassell, Wayne Bridge and Michael Ricketts.Eriksson, as revealed in this newspaper on Monday, had begun pondering Rooney’s elevation immediately after the Liechtenstein match. But it was possible, as he sat in a small office, to discern a glint in the eyes, a lightness of being and a sense of vindication.England’s most impressive performance since at least the dispatch of the Danes in Niigata, perhaps as far back as Munich, was a reward for Eriksson’s familiar patience and less recognised boldness.The first quality was evident in Liechtenstein when, with goal difference irrelevant, he eschewed the temptation to chase popularity with a heavy victory in favour of conserving energies for the Turkey tie The latter came in his decision to risk Wayne Rooney. In Sunderland, as after the triumph of Munich and disasters of Shizuoka and Southampton, there was little emotion as he dissected the Euro 2004 Group Seven qualifier No gloating, no lording over his media critics. The verse of Rudyard Kipling is unlikely to have been on the school curriculum when Sven Goran Eriksson studied at Torsby’s Frykenskolan but it was again clear, in the wake of England’s Wednesday night victory over Turkey, that he has absorbed the spirit if not the words of “If”.
The poem should be a set text for England managers, with its references to “keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you”, to “trust yourself when all men doubt you”, and “bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools”.It is the most quoted line, about treating the two impostors of Triumph and Disaster equally, which applies especially to the Swede.

Dion Ebrahim (31) and Sean Ervine (30) made their mark, but they could not stay in long enough to make a difference to the result.Grant Flower, playing in his 200th one-day international, was dismissed by Mohammed Hafeez’s catch off Danish Kaneria for 13, leaving him one run short of 6,000 one-day runs.. They reduced Pakistan to 69 for 4, but Younis Khan scored 67 before Razzaq took charge.The opener Douglas Marillier sparked Zimbabwe’s response with 59 runs off 73 balls, but that was as good as it got for the Africans. He carried Pakistan to 278 for 7 and that proved too much for Zimbabwe, who were bowled out for 210 runs after 44.1 overs.Pakistan, shorn of players such as Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Shoaib Akhtar after their failure in the World Cup, struggled to get a grip on the game despite choosing to bat first on a pitch that looked as if it would yield runs.But Zimbabwe, themselves without the retired Andy Flower and Guy Whittall, as well as the ostracised Henry Olonga, were confident after reaching the Super Six stage of the World Cup. Pakistan made a winning start to their new era yesterday when they defeated Zimbabwe by 68 runs in the first match of the remodelled Sharjah Cup.
Abdur Razzaq’s belligerent innings of 76 off 53 balls included six sixes in the last 12 balls. Iris Bleu, on the other hand, was a 100-1 shot when he fell at the fifth 12 months ago.. There was a charge too from Iris Bleu, a 12-1 prospect now that he is to be the conveyance of Tony McCoy.It was a bold choice by the champion jockey to reject another Martin Pipe horse in Blowing Wind, who has twice finished in the frame at Liverpool.