Heskey and Owen on target as Reds win in style

If any evidence was needed that the #5m spent on Harry Kewell last week was a cracking piece of business, it was provided just five minutes into Liverpool's first pre-season match of the new campaign.

The man Craig Johnston recently described as the greatest Australian footballer ever wasn't even on the pitch when Emile Heskey latched on to a poor pass out of defence to expertly strike home the first goal of the game but you can be sure the Liverpool No.8 was well aware of his new team-mate watching on from the sidelines.

Kewell might have been signed to add width and creativity in midfield to a Liverpool team who under-performed last season but his ability to play in attack AND score goals won't have been missed by Heskey. The Liverpool striker's goal - and all-round first-half display - was enough to suggest that he has no intention of giving up his place in the starting line-up without a fight.

Heskey wasn't the only player who looked to have an extra spring in his step post Kewell's arrival. Vladimir Smicer - the player who gave up the legendary number seven shirt to Liverpool's newest recruit - was a revelation. With the burden of wearing that shirt quite literally lifted off his shoulders, Smicer looked a different player to the one we witnessed last season.

The Czech midfielder might not have scored but his willingness to shoot on sight was deserving of a goal - only the crossbar and two fantastic saves from Cologne 'keeper Alexander Bade denied the new No.11 a place on the score sheet.

One Liverpool player who quite predictably did make the score sheet though was Michael Owen. Controlling the ball brilliantly in the box after a fabulous Steven Gerrard pass, the England striker turned a defender inside out before despatching the ball beyond the reach of the Cologne goalkeeper after 59 minutes. He was at it again with just minutes left as he rounded the 'keeper before scoring his easiest goal ever. Business as usual, then.

And what of Kewell himself? Well, the former Elland Road hero has been the subject of so many column inches since his move to Anfield last week, you'd be forgiven for thinking he was some sort of super hero capable of winning Gerard Houllier the Premiership on his own. The reality, as the fans have always known, is a little different. Kewell is indeed a fantastic signing - possibly the best signing of the summer in terms of both price and quality - but Liverpool have never been a one-man team and tonight the Australian was happy to wait in the wings during the first half before coming on to the biggest cheer of the night to play the final 45 minutes.

Exactly one week after the player finally ended the longest running transfer soap opera of the summer and put pen to paper on a contract with the team he grew up supporting, the new darling of the Kop took to a German pitch for the second half wearing the most famous shirt in world football. A half-built stadium in the middle of a forest in Cologne might not be the most glamorous of settings to make your debut but no one - not Harry Kewell or the 1,500 fans who had made the journey from England to see the game - were complaining.

Starting his Liverpool career on the right wing, Kewell did enough to whet the supporters' appetites for the coming season with a couple of neat flicks, some intelligent running and enough deft touches with both feet to see why he was so in demand this summer. Indeed, just watching him juggle the ball with both feet before the second-half kicked-off was a joy to behold. Despite the unbelievable buzz generated by his arrival on Merseyside, no one really expected him to score a hat-trick tonight. We already know how good he is and if he needs a few weeks to really find his feet in his new team, no one will begrudge him that.

As has become the norm with early pre-season friendlies for Liverpool, the Reds started the match with strange looking side. No Owen, no Kewell, no Gerrard, no Carragher and no Riise. In their place, Liverpool kicked off with Dudek in goal, Markus Babbel, Sami Hyypia, Igor Biscan and Gregory Vignal in defence, Vladimir Smicer, Dietmar Hamann, Salif Diao and El-Hadji Diouf in midfield and striking partnership of Emile Heskey and Milan Baros.

FC Cologne came into this game having played six pre-season friendlies - they'd won all six. Liverpool, by contrast, have had six weeks holiday and six days in a Swiss training camp. As you'd expect, the result was nice (Cologne equalised after 11 minutes before Owen scored his two goals in the second-half) but never really that important to Gerard and his coaching staff. The substitution of 10 players at half-time - only Igor Biscan remained on the pitch from the team who started the game - proved that. This was a fitness-building exercise and while everyone who made an appearance for Liverpool will have benefited from the run out, you get the feeling that Heskey and Smicer will have benefited more than most.