在展望與葡萄牙隊的1/4決賽時，英格蘭隊主帥埃裏克松一再叮囑自己的隊員們控制火氣，千萬別被對手的種種挑釁行為激怒而不必要地吃牌。
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=afp-fblwc2006engporcards&prov=afp&type=lgns
Eriksson warns players not to rise to Portugal provocation
by Martin Parry
June 28, 2006
BUHLERTAL (AFP) - England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has warned his players not to rise to any provocation from Portugal in their quarter-final on Saturday, wary that referees are brandishing cards on a whim.
The Swede convened a team meeting at their hotel on Tuesday evening for a pep talk about the antics of Portugal, whose last game against the Netherlands descended into chaos with 16 yellow cards and four red.
A FIFA delegate was also present at the meeting to discuss the finer points of refereeing at the tournament, British press reports said.
The official in charge of the Portugal-Netherlands match described it as "brutal" while Dutch coach Marco van Basten complained about the "experience, tricks and time-wasting" employed by Luiz Felipe Scolaris side.
Eriksson has told his team not to react to any theatrics from Portugal, particularly John Terry, Jamie Carragher and Paul Robinson who are on yellow cards from the Ecuador game.
So far, England's experienced and disciplined squad have escaped any serious problems with referees although a number of the players are not happy with the standard of officiating.
Owen Hargreaves and Rio Ferdinand have urged whoever takes charge of their clash with Portugal in Gelsenkirchen to let the game flow and keep the yellow cards to a minimum.
"The referees have been very tough, in my opinion over tough," said Ferdinand at England's training camp in southern Germany.
"A lot of tackles that have been booked, well the yellow cards have been handed out too freely.
"But that's the way it goes and we've got to deal with that and the team that deals with that best will be the team that wins."
Hargreaves said some of the decisions made at the World Cup have been hard to understand and called for a free-flowing game on Saturday.
"All the referees, just like the players, you've got the best refs in the world," he said.
"But I think some decisions have been hard for some of the players to understand because they have been blowing the whistle so much.
"Obviously it's important for the players that the ref has a good day and lets the players play because it is very difficult to get a flow to the game if it's stopped every 30 seconds."
The referee for the England-Portugal game has yet to be announced.
England returned to the training ground Wednesday after two days off following their draining 1-0 win over Ecuador in Stuttgart on Sunday, with their only concern being Gary Neville's recovery from a calf injury.
The influential Manchester United defender has missed the last three games but trained on his own with the England physio on Tuesday and with the team on Wednesday.
Assistant manager Steve McClaren has said he should be in contention for Saturday.
Portugal head into the match without midfielders Deco and Costinha who were sent off against the Netherlands but knowing they have the edge after beating England in the quarters at Euro 2004.
Updated on Wednesday, Jun 28, 2006 6:26 am EDT
作者-趙海軍
責編：佟杉杉