Keegan prepared for grand farewell

Like an invading army bent on an aggressive imposition of its own agenda, history is on the march again. Football is the country under threat. It's England v Germany - again - it's the World Cup again and it's the last match at Wembley. Things could not be anything but hysteric.

One hundred and two days after they collided like blindfolded boxers in the vertigo ring of Charleroi in rural Belgium, they are at it - again. You do not need to be a romantic individual like Kevin Keegan to understand the sense of occasion. But it helps. Having won there, lost there, scored there and been sent off there, Keegan knows the old ground better than many of the multitude who have wandered up Wembley Way these past 77 years.

So Keegan knows this is a moment of national importance: history laced with hysteria. He told his players as much yesterday morning. "It's a privilege," he said. "You know the 70,000-odd who are in there are the privileged ones. We're the privileged ones. I said to the players this morning, those 11 that are going to play, `what a fantastic thing'. Then I looked across at the other 15 or 16 who would love to be in their shoes. But I've chosen my team."

Everything was going pretty well until Keegan mentioned the team.

Alan Shearer scored the winner against Germany that night in Charleroi. An historic goal, it was England's first winner against Germany in a competitive fixture for 34 years. It provoked pleasure in England but, Keegan aside, not belief. Three days later England lost to Romania and were out of Euro 2000.

It was the end of Shearer as an international player after 63 caps and 30 goals. Vilified as static and one-dimensional though he was, this afternoon England's most pressing task is to find someone to fill Shearer's scoring boots. The man himself will be watching from a satellite television box in the stand.

Shearer's absence leaves Paul Scholes as the squad's highest scorer - 10 goals in 28 matches - but while he has many talents, Scholes is no centre forward. Nevertheless, in more than one way Scholes has emerged as the pivotal player in Keegan's loose outfit.

Yet Scholes, Keegan indicated, will play centrally in a four-man midfield, David Beckham to his right and a combination of Paul Ince, Dennis Wise or Nicky Barmby to his left. Barmby's Liverpool colleague Steven Gerrard would have started, said Keegan, but Gerrard pulled out of training on Thursday afternoon with a thigh twinge and is definitely out.

No matter the personnel, the formation leaves Scholes with the responsibility of defending, marking and tackling. The alternative, Scholes as a second striker behind Andy Cole or Michael Owen - the system that worked so well in Paris against France - left Scholes focusing on creativity. With Scholes lubricating the connections from Beckham to Cole, England were fluid and coherent. They looked international. "I think we turned the corner," Keegan said of Paris. "Against France, I felt that was a big turning point. To go there and play like we did when everyone was knocking us, and rightly so, for our performance in Euro 2000, that showed a lot of character and spirit."

Having said that publicly, having apparently seen the wisdom of not playing with the rigidity of Euro 2000 and declared so, Keegan then promptly announced that he would be changing the formation for this game. "I'll have to live and die by that, I just think this is the right way." Scholes will be asked to track back, and there was an eyebrow-raiser of a suggestion that Gareth Southgate might be included in midfield to help protect the back four.

It's not exactly throwing caution to the Wembley wind tunnel, more like welcoming it in. "A draw is not a disaster," Keegan said, and he added that the pace of Cole and Owen "should keep them holding a pretty deep line. The rest is up to the players who have got the space to use that sensibly. I thought we did that in France. Some of our counter-attacking against France was very swift."

Presumably the England manager expects England to be too busy dominating to be counter-attacking today. Or does he? It's difficult to tell.

The Germans, who have three points in Group Nine from their home win over Greece, are likely to come to defend. And not just their goal - Germany have a unparalleled record of only ever having lost one World Cup qualifier, to Portugal in 1985. Having begun the week chaotically, and exotically with the allegations surrounding their potential manager Christophe Daum, Germany have regrouped. Mehmet Scholl is fit.

Despite 1966, Germany also have fond memories of Wembley, Oliver Bierhoff having scored the `golden goal' there that won Germany Euro 96.

It will be a day for mementoes. Keegan said he might unscrew a seat in the Royal Box. Rudi Voller said he would be happy with the points. Whatever, it's farewell Wembley, hello history.