Holland 2 England 2

Holland 2 England 2

There were times last night when it seemed as if some of England’s players, like revellers on a stag party, could do most damage to their reputation on a feckless night in Amsterdam, but by the time this topsy-turvy encounter came to an end, it seemed clear that the man who had lost most from the evening was Michael Owen.

Such an appraisal may seem harsh on Owen, who, at his home near the Welsh border, is likely to have been spent the evening focusing on the start of the Barclays Premier League season with Manchester United, but the impact made at the Amsterdam Arena by Jermain Defoe, coming on at half-time to turn an embarrassing 2-0 deficit into an uplifting 2-2 draw, will not be forgotten by Fabio Capello when it comes to picking a squad for the World Cup finals in South Africa next summer.

It was an evening to challenge the received wisdom that all Owen has to do is get fit and score a few goals to get back into this England squad. If, as seems likely, he and Defoe are competing for one place in Capello’s plans, that of nimble striker with the pace and the coolness to make a decisive impact from the bench, the Tottenham Hotspur forward can hardly be accused of failing to exploit Owen’s absence. These were his sixth and seventh goals in his past eight appearances for England and, in terms of the “supersub” role, his past five international goals have come from the bench.

That Defoe should end up claiming the headlines, first racing clear to score from Frank Lampard’s pass before equalising from James Milner’s low cross with 13 minutes remaining, was an enormous relief to players such as Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand and Gareth Barry, whose calamitous contributions in the first half had helped Holland to what had appeared an unassailable lead.

Playing an international friendly match three days before the start of the Premier League season did not seem to be the recipe for a performance full of focus, discipline and endeavour, but Capello was entitled to be alarmed by the sight of those three players sleepwalking their way through the first half.

By stroking the kind of casual, absent-minded passes that would not be tolerated on the first match of their clubs’ pre-season tours, Ferdinand and Barry each laid on a goal, for Dirk Kuyt in the tenth minute and Rafael van der Vaart in the 38th, but equally unsettling was the performance of Johnson, whose numerous unforced errors suggested that the right-back berth will remain up for grabs.

The gory details of the first goal bear repeating, if only to remind Ferdinand that, even in the prime of his career, the lapses of old will still happen if he allows his focus to drift even for a split-second. The pass he received from Lampard on the edge of his penalty area was not the greatest, but his casual response, stroking the ball into no-man’s land was far worse.

Many opponents would have left it unpunished, but Kuyt immediately pounced, taking the ball around Robert Green and checking back on to his right foot and scoring at the near post, despite John Terry’s efforts to clear the ball off the line.

Few players in world football are better than Kuyt at pressing and hustling opponents, but England were making it easy for Holland. A careless Johnson back-pass almost teed up Arjen Robben, with Green forced to rush from goal to clear the danger, but far worse followed when Barry repeated the crime of underhitting a pass without paying attention to the opponent who was breathing down his neck. Robben intercepted and, after his shot was saved by Green, Van der Vaart swept the rebound into the net.

Capello looked distinctly unhappy at what he was seeing, but he and his players were in agreement afterwards that he had been measured in his address in the dressing room at half-time. Terry had said on Tuesday that Capello is not averse to using the metaphorical “hairdryer”, blasting them with the hot air that pours forth when his Latin temper comes to the surface, but the captain also said that the Italian likes to play it cool when required, stating clearly and simply what has to be done in order to find a way back into the game.

The biggest difference he made, though, was in sending on Defoe, who immediately stretched a Holland defence that had dealt quite comfortably with the established partnership of Emile Heskey and Wayne Rooney. Defoe had been on the pitch for only four minutes when he raced on to Lampard’s speculative but perceptive pass over the top of the Holland defence. His first touch took him clear, his second teed the ball up and his third, taken on the run with his less favoured left foot, was an adroit effort that brought the travelling fans to their feet.

It is about taking your chances at this level and, if Defoe did so, the same could certainly be said of Milner, winning his first cap. Milner joined the action only in the 68th minute, in an unfamiliar role on the left-hand side of midfield, but he achieved far more in his allotted time than Ashley Young, his Aston Villa team-mate, had to that point. Bravely beating Johnny Heitinga to a bouncing ball, he continued to the by-line and chose the right moment to drive the right ball firmly into the six-yard box, where Defoe, sliding in, made it 2-2.

Carlton Cole, another who made a reasonable impression as a substitute, could even have won it, but, under the circumstances, England could hardly turn their noses up at a draw.