Mills - not worried about yellow cards (Allsport)
MILLS WON'T TREAD CAREFULLY
By John Curtis, PA Sport, Kobe
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Danny Mills has admitted he will not hold back when coming face to face with
Brazil and Roberto Carlos - even though another booking would rule him out of
the World Cup semi-finals if England topple the four-times champions.
Mills has behaved in impeccable fashion after question marks had been placed
against his temperament because of his record of two red cards and 11 yellows
during 2001-02 - the worst record of any English player in the Barclaycard
Premiership.
Now the Leeds defender, who has been one of England's finds of the tournament,
is walking a tightrope after finally being cautioned in Saturday's 3-0 success
over Denmark in a second phase match.
But Mills knows he has to shut out of his mind what a second yellow card will
mean to him personally as England look to reach the last four for the first time
since Italia 90 when they were beaten by West Germany on penalties.
Mills said: "You have got to block out of your mind the possibility
of picking up another booking. You can't worry about that sort of thing.
"If you get two bookings, you miss the next game, and no-one wants to do
that, but you have just got to go out and play exactly the same way as normal
and concentrate on winning the game first.
"The possibility of being suspended will not affect my game. It happens in
football. There is nothing that you can do about it."
Mills preferred to rest up rather than go to Kobe with the rest of the squad
and watch Brazil's fortuitous 2-0 victory over Belgium which set up Friday's
showdown.
But he saw enough on the television in his hotel room to know that England
should not be fazed about the prospect of facing Ronaldo, Rivaldo and co.
He said: "I'm not a massive watcher of football and I preferred after a long
day just to stay in my room and rest up but I saw enough on the box to know that
Brazil are not unbeatable.
"Although they are a huge attacking force, Belgium showed with spirit and
attitude and, if you work hard and are organised, then you can more than match
them. I think it is the organisation that is the big thing.
"One individual moment of brilliance (from Rivaldo) basically won the game
and several of their players are capable of that sort of thing.
"You've got to accept that in one-on-one situations, players are going to get
beaten so that's why if we are organised, people will be covering for that sort
of situation.
"That's the way we will look to play - but defensively I think we can also
get at them.
"What we saw on Monday gives us heart, especially as Belgium had a perfectly
good goal disallowed."
Mills added: "Brazil are a free-spirited side with a lot of ability and
that's what they rely on.
"We've got to try and show the shape and be the compact unit we've been in
the last few games, keep solid, not get pulled about and hope that is good
enough to see us through.
"As we showed against Argentina, if we play well and get things right then we
can match anybody. We will go out there and try and impose ourselves on them and
see where that takes us.
"Up until now people were doubting whether anyone could do that to Brazil but
Belgium showed it is very possible."
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