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11 months ago
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Michael Owen has revealed he still 'resents' two former England team-mates after their mistakes at one World Cup.
The former striker played at three World Cups for his country but never made it past the quarter-finals.
Owen became England's youngest World Cup goalscorer ever in 1998 and went on to score 40 goals for the Three Lions.
And it is for two teammates from that tournament - when England crashed out to Argentina on penalties in the last 16 - that he reserves a special grudge for.
He named David Beckham and Paul Ince as the unlucky souls, with the former sent off for kicking Diego Simeone in retaliation and the latter missing a penalty in the 4-3 shoot-out loss.
Michael Owen admitted he still 'resents' two England team-mates after the 1998 World Cup
The first player he named was David Beckham, who was sent off for kicking out at Diego Simeone after being fouled
He also 'resents' Paul Ince for 'choosing to shoot the ball one way' in the penalty shootout, with his effort saved
'Firstly, I don't believe David Beckham's kick out at Diego Simeone should've been a red card, but that is irrelevant. He made a mistake and that is where my resentment lies,' Owen told William Hill's Up Front with Simon Jordan podcast.
'For a lot of players you only get one shot at a World Cup, and he made a big mistake – he would admit that. You could say that it contributed to us being knocked out and that is a big thing.
'You can resent a lot of things if you use that word, and I do resent a lot of things. Paul Ince missed a penalty and I resent him choosing to shoot the ball one way instead of the other, in the same way I resent Beckham making the decision to kick out at Simeone.
'I resent his actions for all manner of reasons. It was a mistake that only he made and it makes you think that if he hadn't done it, we could have beaten Argentina. I'm absolutely convinced that we would've beaten them with 11 men because we were the better team. We had an unbelievable team so of course I think to myself what could have been.
'England have a history of self-imploding. You have the Beckham red card and then you have the situation where Wayne Rooney stamped on Ricardo Carvalho. It makes you think that a lot of times when we have gone out of tournaments, it’s not actually always for footballing reasons. We almost shoot ourselves in the foot.
'I regularly go to bed wondering how we never won something with England, given the quality of some of the teams that we had.'
Beckham received severe backlash from the public and the press for his sending-off, even being subjected to death threats.
David Batty also saw his penalty saved in the final kick, but Owen did not mention him
The 1998 World Cup was Owen's first and he became England's youngest-ever scorer in the tournament with a strike against Romania
Simeone had fouled the Manchester United star and rubbed his knuckles against his head while he was down.
In vengeance, Beckham swung his leg out, with Simeone going down as a result and the referee brandishing a red card early in the second half with the score at 2-2.
He admitted that it plunged him into depression and that it still lingers in his mind today.
Meanwhile, Ince had a good penalty saved, while David Batty also had England's last kick denied, though Owen did not mention him.
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