[Taylor] Silence is golden (19 June 2007)

看板Newcastle作者lapoto (麥克穆西納╰(‵▽′)╯ )時間18年前 (2007/06/20 14:18)推噓2(2推 0噓 0→)

留言2則, 2人參與討論串1/1

http://tinyurl.com/333rcq Well we're in the Semi-Finals and now two wins from being Champions. Sunday night was a must win game for us, we knew what we had to do. We got off to a brilliant start with the early goal. Milly crossed a great ball into the box and it was there for me to get my head on to. When I saw it coming, the main thing I was thinking about was getting the ball back into the danger zone, it would have had to have been very special to beat the keeper from where I was. He was on the near post and people would have asked questions if I didn’t head it back across goal. My aim was to just get some power on to it and direct back into the middle where I could see a few bodies. Luckily enough Leroy was there to do what he does best and stick the ball in the net. The second goal, a lot of people were questioning it, but if you look again, they played on when the player was struggling and he only went down after walking 15 yards up the pitch when we got possession back. It was a great finish by Derbs, nonetheless. I was wondering why he didn’t take it on further, but he struck it hard and low and applied the perfect finish. They got themselves a bit excited after the goal and five or six of them went for Matt and ganged up on him, which was unfair. But as a side Serbia were collectively very strong and difficult to break down. I don’t think they could deal with the pace we have in our team though. We now know what we need to do against Holland. They are a very good side, we’ll give them respect, but we’re going to Heerenveen to knock them out. We want to be in that Final. I made my Under-21s debut against Holland in February 2004, which was a very special moment for me, and we beat them 3-2. But this is a different occasion altogether, this is a competition, and I’m hoping we can get a similar result on Wednesday. I’ve been in a situation like this with England before. Back with the U17s in 2003, we played against Portugal in the Semi-Final of the UEFA Championship. That was in Portugal, too, and we had to deal, not only with a good side, but a hostile crowd. I really thought we were going to win that tournament, we came so close leading with a couple of minutes left. They equalised and won it on penalties. I know how bad I felt after that game. It was a massive kick in the teeth, especially watching the Final thinking ‘we should be playing there’. I don’t want to experience that again this time. After our game against Serbia we had a recovery day yesterday; ice baths, swimming and a light workout in the gym. In the afternoon we had a bit of free time, some of the players went to see their families or popped out shopping, but I just stayed in my room, relaxed and watched some DVDs. In the evening we went out into Arnhem for a meal, the players and staff. It was a really good Japanese Tapanyaki restaurant, though it doesn’t beat the one in Newcastle. They cooked all the food in front of us and it was tasty as well as entertaining. Part of the chef's routine was cooking the egg fried rice. As he chopped up bits of fried egg, he flicked them into the air for us to catch in our mouths. I caught my piece, but there was no way he was missing my big mouth! It was good for team bonding, we’ve not all been out of the hotel like that yet as a group and it was great for morale, we had a really good laugh. We’re heading up to Heerenveen tonight and staying a night there before our Semi-Final against the Dutch. It will be nice to go to a new stadium and I’ve heard the fans up there are quite noisy, so it should be a good atmosphere. But we’re going up there to win, and if we have to silence them, then so be it. Steven Taylor -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 61.62.77.83