Soccer: Rio wants revenge

Rio Ferdinand is already savouring the prospect of revenge when England face bitter rivals Argentina in next summer’s World Cup.

Ferdinand watched England’s heartbreaking second-round penalty shoot-out defeat to Argentina during France ’98 from the substitutes’ bench, the clash in St Etienne made infamous by the sending off of David Beckham.

The Leeds skipper, who was then with West Ham and aged just 19, is now likely to be the bedrock of coach Sven-Goran Eriksson’s defence when England meet Juan Sebastian Veron and co in next summer’s Group G clash in Japan.

The duel has already become the most-eagerly anticipated of not only the so-called ‘Group of Death’ with Nigeria and Sweden the other two opponents but of the entire first round.

Ferdinand knows England face a tough task to qualify for the last 16 as he said: ‘‘The World Cup draw could not have been any tougher really.

‘‘We have to face the favourites in Argentina, probably the best team in Africa in Nigeria, as well as Sweden who were one of the best teams in qualifying.

‘‘But then I am sure those teams will not be licking their lips at the prospect of facing us either, so we are all in the same boat. It’s just a case of going out there and doing a job.

‘‘My guess is the newspapers in Argentina, Sweden and Nigeria have all been writing the same thing about this group that it is not going to be easy for any of us.’’

But the game with Argentina is the one which already has everybody talking, with Ferdinand hoping England can make amends for the harrowing disappointment of four years ago.

‘‘I was on the bench for that game and it was great to be there for such an occasion but like everybody else, I hope the result can be different this time,’’ added Ferdinand.

The 23-year-old’s initial problem, though, is helping Leeds return to winning ways going into tomorrow’s Premier League clash at Blackburn United have won just one of their last seven games.

Thursday’s 2-2 UEFA Cup draw with Grasshoppers of Zurich underlined Leeds’ failure, as has often been this case this season, to kill teams off.

Ferdinand believes, despite the recent problems to blight manager David O’Leary’s squad, it is time for him and his team-mates to be more ruthless.

‘‘We have had a reasonable run, but things have been a bit stop-start recently,’’ added Ferdinand.

‘‘It’s been a funny period for us really. We’ve been disrupted by injuries and players going away, but that is just something we have to cope with.

‘‘It’s meant that in the last seven to eight games we have slipped up a bit, so we have to start picking up a few points again now.

‘‘We are not winning games at the moment, although we are not losing them either and letting in many goals, and that’s the important thing.

‘‘But we have to start punishing teams and finishing them off, like we were doing last season. We face a test of character to see if we can get through this.’’

O’Leary has selection problems with seven players out injured, while Alan Smith starts a three-match ban and Seth Johnson serves a one-match suspension.

The only ray of light for O’Leary is that Robbie Fowler is available after missing the game with Grasshoppers due to ineligibility, while Dominic Matteo returns to the centre of defence having recovered from an Achilles injury.