Brazilian referee Carlos Simon’s controversial, no-nonsense reputation, combined with Wayne Rooney’s notorious short temper, could leave England fans seeing red at the World Cup.
Simon will officiate Saturday’s United States-England match on Saturday after being selected by Fifa for the game despite handing out 17 yellow cards and one red in three matches at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
“That’s something all the players are going to be conscious of,” US defender Oguchi Onyewu said. “You can’t just use a ref’s stats on how a game is going to go. Come Saturday he might not play any cards out.”
US coach Bob Bradley sees discipline as being crucial for any team’s World Cup hopes.
“It’s important that there is discipline,” Bradley said. “We’ve seen in a number of World Cups, especially in the first round, players must respect the game and their opponents, otherwise there will be cards given out.”
The US match will be Rooney’s first in a World Cup since being red carded for stamping the groin of Portugal’s Ricardo Carvalho in a 2006 quarterfinal loss for England.
“It’s a testament to the player he is that he’s so competitive and wants to win so bad that he loses his temper a little bit,” US midfielder Stuart Holden said of Rooney. “But that’s part of football.”
While Bradley denies the Americans will be out to “wind up” England star forward Rooney, saying, “We don’t enter into all that,” he did add, “It will be a good hard game.”
Simon’s refereeing in Brazil was called “inconsistent, unfair and inequitable” in a letter to Fifa by Brazilian club Flamengo seeking to keep the official out of the World Cup.
Simon, who officiated an England draw with Sweden in the 2002 World Cup, also controversially sent off Swede Teddy Lucic in a 2006 World Cup match against Germany. — AFP