Premiership Diary's The Lucky Ones

England won the friendly fixture in Geneva against a close to full strength Argentine 3-2. It was a performance that glimpsed moments when the players in the white shirts were playing at a high international level and then leveraging a win despite twice trailing.

The result has no real meaning and the game was played with an open heart by both sets of players. In a tournament, once in the lead the South Americans might have opted to use injuries, substitutions, time wasting and chat, to kill off the game and run down the clock.

As it was England got to use every minute of the game and finally Michael Owen buried the ball in the back of the net with a clean headed strike, hit from a rigid body shape elevated and high in front of the Argentine defence.

His first goal had given England 2-2 parity and before that Rooney had allowed some of his destructive power out to show the Argentines what the English game was capable of producing. By the end Lampard was blowing hard and Gerrard and Beckham were swapping wings as Joe Cole began to taunt the back four.

When the final whistle blew the English quarters of the stadium were celebrating with a solid determination that now the world should see how good a game it is that is the football played by the English. How the team fare from now on is impossible to guess, but it seems clear that the talent can pull together and there are possibilities to succeed. If they found something special in the final minutes in Geneva it was about will and the imposition of that will on the events around.

Next time the fates might line up in another way and everything might not be possible and the fortune that favoured the England that roamed forward in this match might have it taken away another time. Chelsea line up against Newcastle and Manchester United visit Charlton and the players can only fight for the points and the outcomes, uncertainty is the only definate.

That is always the case but with the way the world is now, with the way the uncertaintities are stacked, the luckiest people the world are those who will be supporting the team from England at the World Cup in Germany 2006.