Celtic are facing a win-or-go-home scenario when they host AC Milan in Tuesday evening’s Champions League group stage match. A win could see Celtic catapulted into second place; a loss would effectively eliminate the Hoops from this season’s European competition. For those who haven’t seen a Champions League match from Celtic Park, you may only […]

When you think back to previous World Cup tournaments, what are the fondest memories of the games you watched? For me, it were the ones I watched with friends and strangers. Watching a World Cup on a giant TV screen with friends or strangers is a surreal experience. Every moment in the game is heightened as […]

Every country has its historic matches that will never be forgotten and England's rich World Cup history provides many celebrated games. Say phrases like “1966 World Cup”, “hand of God”, "David Beckham free kick", “Gazza”, or “losing to penalties” to an England fan and watch his eyes light up with pleasure or grief thinking about […]

2006 was a disaster for England's much vaunted strikers in so many ways it was depressing. It was clearly Sven Goran-Eriksson's nadir as the England supremo as his eccentric choices left England woefully short of options. Michael Owen was so off the pace as to be redundant and his World Cup collapse when he ruptured […]

So what makes a great goal? I know it seems a easy question but honestly, what makes a goal truly great? Is it the goal that keeps a side up or a lob from the half way line? The goal that drags a side back in to a game when they're 2-0 or a last […]

Toward the end of his book Inverting the Pyramid, Jonathan Wilson writes about the changing nature of modern football. A player he brings up to emphasize this is Michael Owen. To Wilson, Owen is a relic of a previous era. “He appears a player left behind by the tactical evolution of the game,” Wilson writes. […]

For every generation of fans and players, there is always one player that stands out for a variety of reasons. For every Sir Stanley Matthews, there will be a George Best, for every Gary Lineker, there will be Paul Gascoigne. Players who captivated their peers but for some reason, lost the passion, fell into bad […]

As a Liverpool supporter I have a soft spot for Michael Owen. Now, for the sake of full journalistic disclosure, I must admit I came to the party late. I'm an American who, seduced by the 2006 World Cup, went looking for an English club to support. Through the right mixture of Steven Gerrard, Peter […]

In 2004, he left Liverpool for Real Madrid in search of Champions League glory. Early on, Madrid mostly shackled him to their bench and later ducked out to Juventus in the first knock-out round. The Liverpool players bounced on the big stage in Istanbul: lifting the trophy without him. The next season, after Liverpool didn't […]

Newcastle fans must have watched Leeds United's loss to Millwall in the League One play-offs and shuddered. It was like watching The Ghost of Football's Future. Two clubs of similar size with similarly raucous fans, they are teams that by rights should never experience relegation from the top flight, let alone into League One. But […]

This is not the worst team in the Premier League. It is the least valuable. This team would incite the masses with talent, with name recognition and with expense. They would then fail pathetically. This team could be composed entirely of Newcastle players, but we thought we'd include a few others to keep things interesting. […]

With Newcastle teetering over the relegation trap door, skipper Michael Owen will lead a mass exodus at the club, should they fall through it into the Championship on Sunday. With Owen out of contract it is likely that he will leave the club in the summer regardless. The question is where will he go? A […]

With his international career apparently over and his club's Premier League status under major threat it begs the question, 'What will happen to Micheal Owen'? On 30 June 1998, 18 year-old Michael Owen's name resonated around the football world after scoring THAT goal for England against Argentina. Michael James Owen had made his debut just a year previously, […]

It says a lot, for better or for worse, that Manchester United's eighteenth championship sent barely a ripple through the footballing press. Most headlines read, "Man United 0 – Arsenal 0," with United's Premier League-winning feat mentioned in the sub header. It seems the Premier League ended some time ago, perhaps when Liverpool drew Arsenal […]

After another defeat, Newcastle United look destined for the Championship. Alan Shearer’s men have three games to save their season, but it appears too little too late, and although it is not mathematically certain they will go down, performances on and off the pitch have made it clear they are just not good enough to […]