Presumably in a bid to drive tourism to this unlovely corner of the Rhones Alps region, Saint-Etienne has been declared a creative city by UNESCO due to “the relationship between art and industry”.
If that sounds like a nice way of saying it is a city packed with industrial estates it might be because it is. However one spot a few kilometres north of the town centre once played host to an evening of drama so gripping that those three hours on June 30th 1998 are deserving of UNESCO recognition all on their own.
It was the night that launched Michael Owen’s career, tied the noose around David Beckham effigies and further cemented England’s abhorrence of penalty shootouts.
Argentina 2 England 2, one of the greatest nights of international knockout football in the last 20 years and – apart from host France’s triumph over Brazil in the final – most certainly the greatest occasion of World Cup 1998.
Roy Hodgson and his squad’s brief walkabout on the turf here at Stade Geoffrey-Guichard on Sunday evening never got beyond the hands-in-pocket level of activity, which means that no England player has kicked a ball in anger here since David Batty (ignoring Alan Shearer’s advice to drive the ball down the middle) tried to sidefoot his penalty to the right of Carlos Roa only to place it at a lovely height for the Argentine goalkeeper.
The ‘Hod Squad’ were out of the World Cup – the first of many knockout disappointments for England’s ‘Golden Generation’ – and manager Glenn Hoddle, who brought faith healer Eileen Drewery to France, was out of a job months later after his controversial comments about disabled people.
Despite a flawless qualifying campaign that saw them concede three goals while scoring 31, few are describing this current England squad as a glittering bunch and Hodgson is a manager more likely to be turfed out for being chronically uninteresting than for saying something controversial.
However there are echoes of 1998 here in eastern France 18 years later. England were pitted against Argentina at this steep sided, atmospheric little stadium because they were beaten by Romania in the group stages. The Romanians celebrated by dying their hair blonde en masse and losing to Croatia.
On Monday night, once more under floodlights, England will seek to avoid the mistakes of their predecessors. Beat Slovakia and they will top Group B, ensuring themselves a second round fixture against a third-place finisher from either Group A, C or D.
Lose or draw and they run the risk of meeting France in the quarter-finals at the Stade de France, or even Germany or Spain in the last-16, if they come third in the group.
If that were to happen Hodgson would be the one in need of a faith healer. The bizarre decision by Hoddle to bring Drewery as part of the English travelling party was an eye-catching sideshow but the former Chelsea boss’s refusal to trust Owen with a starting position was what drew the greatest ire.
The teenage Liverpool striker was an electrifying, raw talent then, a talent that fans and the media wanted to see up front alongside Alan Shearer instead of Teddy Sheringham – who went into the tournament as first choice.
A tall, quintessentially English striker who made his name at Tottenham, Sheringham and Harry Kane now have something else in common. Nobody is denying Premier League top-scorer Kane’s ability but he has looked a shadow of himself against Russia and Wales.
Whether it is fatigue, a struggle with the system or just a dip in form at an unfortunate moment, Kane will be very lucky to start ahead of Jamie Vardy here, with Raheem Sterling’s place likely to go to Daniel Sturridge.
Vardy and Sturridge, the goalscorers in the come-from-behind win over Wales in Lens, have been cast in the Owen role and if one of them has half the impact that he did back in 1998 then Slovakia should be worried.
After Diego Simeone earned a penalty that was converted by Gabriel Batistuta, Owen did likewise for England, going down quite easily and giving Alan Shearer the opportunity to equalise from the spot, which he did.
Owen then gave England the lead with possibly the most famous English goal at a World Cup since 1966.
Following a classy flicked first touch, the 18-year-old just blasted past Jose Chamot and side-stepped Roberto Ayala before showing preternatural confidence to ignore the onrushing Paul Scholes to drill the ball across Roa in the opposite direction to which he was running.
It was the type of goal (if an exceptionally pretty version) that Vardy was scoring throughout Leicester City’s Premier League-winning campaign and, if Hodgson has been won over by his reserve striker’s equalising goal against Wales, he wasn’t showing it in the pre-match press-conference.
“There are a lot of players who would like to play and have been knocking hard at the door to play so I have the option to refresh because everyone is anxious to get their chance and show what they can do.
“It’s really a question of what we would like to do rather than what we feel is necessary in any other way.”
FA Chairman Greg Dyke had heaped pressure on Hodgson earlier in the day by detailing what was required of England for Hodgson to have his contract renewed – a quarter-final exit seemingly only acceptable if it goes to penalties against a top side or “unfortunately lost”.
Hoddle’s men were unfortunate in 1998. They were unfortunate that Sol Campbell had a goal disallowed in the second half for a phantom foul but mostly they were unfortunate that one of their key players could not keep his head in such an important game.
Beckham did not deserve the opprobrium drawn down on him after his foolish dismissal. The petitions, the hanging effigies, hate mail and the horrific chants at Manchester United games the next season were inordinate but that is not to absolve him of all blame.
He was foolish to be provoked by the wily Simeone and he absolutely let his team down. Something that was made abundantly clear to him in the dressing room after the penalty shootout.
“When the England players came back into the dressing room, nobody breathed a word to me. There was almost complete silence. I could feel my stomach tightening even more. I gulped, breathed in and gulped again,” he wrote in one of his many autobiographies.
It took his United team-mates Gary Neville and Paul Scholes to break the silence before succour came from an unlikely source. Tony Adams would never play in another World Cup but he had the heart to comfort the isolated Beckham.
“It was a strong embrace. I could feel that he meant it; that he could see how much I was suffering; that he wanted to take away some of the pain.”
Wayne Rooney watched 1998 World Cup defeat to Argentina in his nan's house. Enjoyed the tournament despite defeat #eng
— Mikey Stafford (@me_stafford) June 19, 2016
England have nobody of Beckham’s star quality now and, maybe, that is no bad thing. This young team, built around up and coming stars like Kane, Dele Alli and Adam Lallana, seem remarkably free of ego and side-shows.
They also, however, lack a central defender of Adams’ stature and while that may not cost them against Slovakia it could be a problem later in the tournament.
A 12-year-old Wayne Rooney watched the drama unfold in his granny’s house and tomorrow he will look to provide the sort of leadership an Adams or a Paul Ince has done in the past.
Saint-Etienne is unlikely to be lucky enough to see a repeat of 18 years ago but, on Monday night, Hodgson will be hoping to top Group B with his own combination of art and industry.
