Beckham trains in the Sapporo Dome on Thursday.

By Frank Malley, PA Chief Sport Writer, Sapporo

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David Beckham has come further than most people, himself included, could ever have imagined in the past four years.

Since that dark night in Saint Etienne when he watched from the sidelines as England crashed out of France '98 on penalties after being sent off against Argentina, Beckham has been the shining light of English football.

But, if England are to survive into the second phase of this World Cup, then on Friday against the 2002 Argentinians, Diego Simeone and all, Beckham must conjure from somewhere the match of his life. Cometh the World Cup cometh the hour when great players must demonstrate their greatness.

Football history is sprinkled with such characters. From Pele, who burst on to the stage as the youngest-ever World Cup winner as a 17-year-old in 1958, to Gerd Muller, Mario Kempes and Zinedine Zidane - men who stamped their authority on tournaments with the power of their personality and the richness of their talent.

If England are to progress after the disappointing start against Sweden when their second-half football had a distressing pallor then Beckham must join such a list.

It is asking much of the Manchester United footballer at a time when he is short of full fitness and England are in a tactical turmoil after their deficiencies were laid bare by the Swedes.

There are those who would say if he is not 100, which he isn't, he should not be allowed anywhere near the extraordinary sliding pitch here, which weighs more than 30 jumbo jets and hovers into the Sapporo dome on match days on a bed of air, before turning 90 degrees.

As it happened they said the same about Hungary's Ferenc Puskas in 1954 but he battled through the final with West Germany to score one and make another even if the Germans came back for a 3-2 victory.

The worth of Beckham is obvious. His set-piece delivery is on a higher plain to anyone else in this tournament as he demonstrated yet again with the savagely swinging corner for Sol Campbell's headed goal against Sweden. Beckham is England's one man who can save or win a game in a fraction of a second.

But if lack of stamina following following his broken foot prevents him from surging up and down England's right side then there must be more to Beckham's presence than his country were given last Sunday, when in the second half he managed not a single kick before being substituted.

World Cups are won not by the industry of whole-hearted players such as Owen Hargreaves and Nicky Butt and Danny Mills, as important as they may be. They are won by a side's most influential characters controlling the ebb and flow of a game.

If ever there was an encounter for a captain to show his leadership qualities then it is in this latest enactment in the tormented history of England against Argentina.

You only had to visit the Argentinian training camp at J-Village, Japan's national training centre, in a remote outpost of Fukushima this week to gauge the focused mood of a squad which cares little for the fripperies around the edges of this prestigious tournament, just the meat at the heart of the main course.

Their press corps wait outside the camp in exasperation, allowed only the briefest contact with Argentina's most prized stars.

They invariably train in the furthest corner from the cameras and then throw a couple of reserves to pass on the blandest of titbits to the reporting band, itself much curtailed in numbers due to the economic catastrophe in their homeland.

Yet still the motivation within the camp has filtered out - a duty expressed by goalkeeper Pablo Cavallero to win for all those Argentinians who lost their lives in the Falklands war.

Extraordinarily, 20 years on the determination, if anything, seems stronger than ever to exact some sort of psychological revenge for that war - a mood borne out by the reporters and fans who wait for a glimpse of their countrymen.

Add to that the perennial hype surrounding Diego Maradona and that 'Hand of God', Ratin and Sir Alf Ramsey's 'Argentina are animals' jibe of 1966, the sending off of Beckham in France 98 and allegedly disrespectful gestures to the England players from the Argentinian team bus leaving the stadium and it is a match which needs little fuel to catch fire.

Predictably, Maradona has done nothing to defuse the heat claiming: "England are absolutely terrified. They are quaking in their boots."

It is nonsense though. Beckham, the man vilified for his moment of madness four years ago, must be both the voice of reason and the rallying source of inspiration.

It is imperative England do not lose their shape and direction as they did so woefully against Sweden. It is essential they play the sort of football Beckham and Paul Scholes, Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell, Owen Hargreaves and Michael Owen do week in and week out in the Champions League.

Football of intelligence and style, industry and patience, not the hurry-scurry, boot-it-long, get-rid-of-it-quick variety which not only offends the eye but also has as much chance of succeeding in Japan as the Communist Party.

Such a transformation is within their scope if David Seaman, Campbell, Beckham and Owen truly deliver and Sven-Goran Eriksson finds a tactical strategy which allows England to hold their nerve under pressure - a commodity which so glaringly went AWOL against the Swedes.

If that happens then this remote part of northern Japan, nearer to Vladivostok in Russia than to Tokyo, might just see the England which stunned the footballing world not so long ago by beating Germany 5-1 in Munich.

It might, but don't bet on it. A draw perhaps, a 1-0 Argentina victory more likely. Whatever, England's World Cup hangs by the slenderest of threads.