subject: Jeffandbabyking [print this page] The England Football Tiffany Teams last trip to a World Cup Finals ended in disaster with star player, Wayne Rooney, getting sent off in the quarter-final match against Portugal. His now infamous stamp on Ricardo Carvalho, (which was immediately followed by Cristiano Ronaldos
even more infamous slink wink of approval at the misfortune of his then Manchester united team-mate) was the turning point in a thrilling match, and both the England fans and manager Fabio Capello will be hoping for no such repeat at the FIFA South Arica World Cup, which starts this week.
Not that the chances seem likely. England have taken part in 12 of the 18 World Cup tournaments that have taken place since 1930, and in that time only 3 players have seen red while wearing the England shirt. The first player forced to head for an early bath was Ray Wilkins, currently assistant manager at Chelsea. He received his marching orders for a second yellow card offence in Mexico in 1986. During a group match against Morocco, he reacted to what he saw as a bad referring decision by petulantly tossing the ball in the referees direction. Unfortunately for Wilkins, the ball struck the referee and he was shown the red card for unsportsmanlike conduct.
It was the first red card of Wilkins career and happened moments after hed been handed the captains armband, following the substitution of Bryan Robson, Beckham Sees Red Against Argentina Englands Tiffany
excellent disciplinary record in World Cups took another blow in France in 1988. During a tense second round match against old rivals Argentina, star man and style icon, David Beckham, lost his cool following a challenge by Diego Simeone. The challenge left Beckham down on the ground, with
Simeone standing beside him, so the England man flicked up his boot and gave Simeone what appeared no more than a playful kick on the back of his calf muscles. But the Argentine fell to the floor as if shot by a sniper and writhed around clutching the back of his leg, leaving Danish referee Kim Milton Nielsen little choice but to show Beckham red. Later Simeone confessed to exaggerating his reaction in order to get Englands star man sent off, but right or wrong, it did the trick. Argentina won the game on penalties and knocked England out of the tournament.
Rooney Loses His CoolAnd lightning struck again at the quarter-final stage of the 2006 tournament held in Germany. In an almost exact replica of the Beckham dismissal, Rooney was dismissed for stamping on defender
Ricardo Carvalho after the two players came together for a tackle in the middle of the park. Rooney has always maintained his innocence, insisting he would never have stamped on Carvalho had the Portuguese defender not fouled him first and left him off balance, but a group of Portuguese
players, led by Cristiano Ronaldo, swarmed around referee Horacio Elizondo and demanded Rooney be sent off the pitch. It was a sad end to Rooneys first World Cup and also to that of his England team-mates, who battled hard for the rest of the game before losing in a penalty shoot-out.
