Thank the Hands of Roa

They won’t be talking about the “hand of God” goal any more in Argentina and England. They might never stop talking about the best game of this World Cup.

Argentina defeated England on penalty kicks after a 2-2 tie through 120 tense minutes Tuesday night to advance to the quarterfinals.

“It was as exciting as a game can be,” said Argentina Coach Daniel Passarella, captain of the Argentine team that won the World Cup in 1978. “It’s the most dramatic way to end a game. It’s very hard to watch it from the sidelines.”

Unable to penetrate England’s defense, even when it had a man advantage for nearly an hour and a quarter, Argentina survived when goalkeeper Carlos Roa stopped David Batty’s penalty kick on the final attempt in the shootout.

Argentina won the shootout, 4-3, as Roa also stopped Paul Ince, before Robert Ayala connected on his team’s final kick, setting the stage for Roa’s heroics.

“In a shootout, you must forget everything else,” Roa said, “and think only of stopping the shot. You are not expected to stop it, and if you do, you can win.”

Hours after Argentina won, rival groups of fans brawled in Saint-Etienne’s city center and train station, and local youths broke store windows and damaged cars after Argentina defeated England. Police closed off much of the town center, and trams and buses were diverted to avoid further trouble.

It was another tough defeat for England, which played valiantly after David Beckham was ejected one minute into the second half. This had to be more painful than the 1986 World Cup loss to Argentina when Diego Maradona scored a goal with the help of a well-disguised fist, which he later called the “hand of God.”

“We are almost distraught,” England Coach Glenn Hoddle said. “It’s a bitter, bitter pill to take. Even with 10 men we set up so many set pieces we could have won it.”

Argentina plays the Netherlands on Saturday in Marseille.

Gabriel Batistuta and Alan Shearer swapped penalty kick goals in the opening nine minutes; 18-year-old striker Michael Owen fired England ahead, 2-1, with one of the best goals of any World Cup; and Javier Zanetti curled in a left-footed shot for the tying goal off a crafty set play on a free kick seconds from halftime.

“We worked on that in practice, and it came off perfectly,” Passarella said.

Beckham got a red card one minute into the second half for intentionally kicking Diego Simeone, but England still found ways to attack. And it thought it went ahead with eight minutes remaining when Sol Campbell, a standout all game on defense, headed in a corner kick. But Shearer was called for pushing off and, even as Campbell celebrated on the sideline, Argentina began a counterattack.

But like so many others throughout the tense game, it went nowhere.

“England fell back into a more defensive position and it was very tough to get through,” Passarella said. “Both teams played with much courage.”

Before a crowd decidedly pro-Argentina in size--officials and fans in England have complained all tournament about a lack of available tickets--the English fans were in full throat for the entire game.

With a sea of blue-and-white Argentina fans at one end of Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium and pockets of mostly white-clad England rooters mixed among the Argentine flags and banners at the other--the game could have been in Buenos Aires, not the wine country of France. But then Owen gave the English much to roar about.

He first used a bit of trickery, diving to draw England’s penalty kick in the ninth minute. Shearer knocked it in for the first goal allowed by Argentina in the tournament.

Then Owen showed the type of brilliance that would have made Maradona proud. He sped around Jose Chamot, leaving him groping, and then beyond Ayala, two of the pillars of Argentina’s defense. He beat Roa with a high shot to the far post for a 2-1 lead in the 16th minute.

Batistuta had made the Argentines sing with his penalty-kick goal in the sixth minute after Simeone tripped over goalkeeper David Seaman, who drew a yellow card as a warning.

Argentina could not get by Campbell all night, but his one mistake was costly. In injury time, Campbell was caught for holding just outside the penalty area. An intricate series of fakes on the free kick freed Zanetti for a 15-yard left-footed boot to tie the score.

There were no other goals until the shootout.

After Roa’s last save, the stands rocked with pandemonium, Pampas style, while the English players hugged each other, applauded their fans, and marched off.

“We certainly can’t play any harder than we did tonight,” English midfielder Darren Anderton said. “But things don’t always go your way.”