Sir Alex Ferguson has told Michael Owen not to give up on his
World Cup dream.
Owen is hoping to retain his starting spot for Manchester
United's Premier League encounter with Aston Villa on Saturday
following his memorable hat-trick for the Red Devils in Tuesday's
Champions League win over Wolfsburg.
Although it has shot the 29-year-old back to prominence, the
general view is that his efforts have come too late to get him on
the plane to South Africa next summer.
Fabio Capello has overlooked Owen completely since the friendly
defeat in France, which will be two years ago by the time England
are next in action, probably against Egypt, on March 3.
In that time, Jermain Defoe has established himself as the
back-up to Wayne Rooney, who is certain to be in Capello's 23-man
squad, while Owen hardly fits the bill of a bulldozing front-man,
such as Emile Heskey or Carlton Cole.
Nevertheless, Ferguson thinks Owen could still force his way in,
and insists the former Liverpool striker will get enough chances to
impress over the next few months.
"Fabio has said himself, performance is the only thing that
matters," said Ferguson.
"If Michael is going to get to the World Cup it will be through
his performance and I think Wednesday helps him.
"There is a view that he will not have played enough games. But
he will play a sufficient number to be considered.
"That is the best chance he has got. That is all he can hope
for."
While England's World Cup fate is clearly not Ferguson's
concern, he does understand that if Owen scores enough goals to
reach his fourth trip to the greatest tournament on the planet,
United will have been the beneficiaries.
Owen has scored so often down the years, his first United
hat-trick will not have provided a particular confidence boost.
However, with his third goal in particular, when Owen collected
Gabriel Obertan's short pass and raced towards the Wolfsburg goal
from halfway before expertly chipping home, Ferguson saw the killer
instinct that was evident so early in his career.
"It was vintage Michael Owen," said Ferguson.
"He had the cleverness to cut across the defender, forcing him
to think about whether to bring him down, which would have meant a
penalty and a red card.
"The guy could not afford to tackle him because at that point,
Wolfsburg were still in the Champions League.
"The goalkeeper came out but Michael waited and chipped him when
he went down. It was brilliant."