Soccer Notebook: Revival For Owen, And Renewal For Newcastle

After struggling with injuries for much of the last three seasons, Michael Owen has apparently rediscovered his scoring touch — and not a moment too soon.

Michael Owen has helped Newcastle United avoid a disastrous Premier League season with six goals in his last 11 games.

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His club, Newcastle United, was flirting with relegation midway through the English Premier League season when the team fired the manager, Sam Allardyce, and replaced him with the Geordie icon Kevin Keegan, who had led the club more than 10 years ago.

Now Owen is scoring goals (he has six in his last 11 games), and the Magpies are unbeaten in their last seven Premier League games after a 2-2 tie Saturday at West Ham United. Newcastle is in 12th place but could surpass 10th-place West Ham and end the season, which began in disaster, on a respectable note.

“Every season has a different story, and if it wasn’t for the last six weeks or so, it would have been a very disappointing season,” Owen said last Wednesday in a telephone interview from his home outside Chester, England, just over the border in Wales. “The team was not playing well, and it wasn’t very enjoyable. But when you’re winning, you enjoy the game more, you get on with people better and appreciate your teammates more. The last six weeks, with a new manager, have been a big lift in confidence. We’ve gone on a fantastic run. With that, there’s now a feel-good factor.”

Matters were indeed dark for Owen and Newcastle as recently as early January, when Allardyce was fired and the Magpies went to Manchester and were hammered by United, 6-0. Keegan, surprisingly, returned for a second stint at the Newcastle helm on Jan. 16. Among his first acts was naming Owen the team captain. But the club promptly went on an eight-game winless streak in the Premier League and fell into the relegation zone.

Newcastle turned things around with a position switch. Owen, a striker, had been a top scorer throughout his career. He had 158 goals in 296 games with Liverpool from 1997 to 2004; 19 in 44 games at Real Madrid in 2004-5; and 40 in 89 games for the English national team.

So one of Keegan’s key changes to Newcastle’s scheme was his decision to move Owen from his customary position up front to a spot just behind Mark Viduka and Obafemi Martins. Instant offense and instant success.

“We’ve been playing a formation with me roaming behind two strikers,” Owen said. “I’ve always known I can play in that position, but I’ve always been in striking position in the past. Now I’m in between the midfielder and the attacking players.”

Owen has one year left on a contract that pays him more than $20 million a year. As the end of the Premier League season nears, he will have to decide whether to extend his current deal through the 2010 season, sign a long-term contract, or engineer a transfer.

He has tasted success at the game’s highest level, scoring one of the greatest goals in World Cup history, against Argentina in 1998; scoring buckets of goals for Liverpool; and playing in Spain with Real Madrid. But he has also felt the sting of spending too much time on the sideline with a laundry list of nagging injuries.

“I can’t pretend I get satisfaction coming in 10th in the league,” Owen said. “That’s something I want to get back into my career — winning more games than losing and challenging for honors.”

Major League Soccer

¶David Beckham has attracted the klieg lights and has been a butt of parody. (Tracey Ullman does a hilarious impression on her Showtime show, “State of the Union.”) But one thing is certain — five games into the 2008 season, Landon Donovan is the prime beneficiary of Beckham’s presence on the right side of the Los Angeles Galaxy midfield.

On Saturday night, Donovan scored a hat trick in a victory over rival Chivas USA, increasing his season total to a league-leading eight goals (two players are tied for second with four each).

“He’s scoring goals, and that’s what counts,” Beckham told Agence France-Presse afterward. “He’s a special player. He proved what he’s able to do. He’s good in the box and from outside.”

AROUND THE LEAGUE Colorado goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul kept the Rapids in the game against Chicago, making a series of reflex saves, then nearly scored the tying goal when he came forward and got his head on the ball from a corner kick in the game’s waning moments. His header sailed high in the Fire’s 2-1 victory. ... John Thorrington, 29, scored both goals for Chicago. He began his professional career when he signed with Manchester United as a 17-year-old in 1997, but never made it past the reserve team. ... The Red Bulls’ Mike Magee, who has been dogged by injuries during his six years in the league, scored his first goal since July 22, 2006, in Sunday’s win over San Jose. ... An official at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns Toronto F.C., the N.H.L.’s Maple Leafs and the N.B.A.’s Raptors, returned recently from a trip to England and was “exploring the idea of purchasing a soccer club” in the Premier League, according to an article last week in The Toronto Star.

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