England striker Wayne Rooney has come out and said his step on Ricardo Carvalho's jewels was completely unintentional - but what else would he say right?  I'd love to hear a player say "Yeah, I meant to do it...I saw them there and I thought I could get away with it so - ya, I did it."

But with Roy Keane now retired, that'll never happen will it?

I went over the tape this afternoon with our Argentine producer - over and over and over and over - and I STILL believe it was unintentional.  Now let me qualify that - by unintentional I mean that he didn't intend to step on his bean bag.  I'm not saying he didn't mean to step on him period.

In winding and rewinding the video, Rooney is focused on the ball - he's looking right at it.  I've read some people's blogs saying he looked right at Carvalho and stepped - I don't agree.  As he's making his way through the two Portugal players, there is obvious clutching & grabbing from everyone involved.  Rooney is obstructed off the ball but fights through it and in the course of events, Carvalho goes down and tries to drag Rooney with him - but Rooney stays focused on the ball.  You can actually see him try to get his feet to it.

Now - he knew Carvalho was there....he also knew Carvalho was down and I think while he was off-balance, he did mean to step on Carvalho - but not on his jewels.

Was it worth the red card?  No way.  Yellows to BOTH would have been appropriate as both Carvalho and Rooney fouled each other.  The Ronaldo stuff is handbags - we've seen that dozens of times with nothing shown.  Now some of you will go by the letter of the law - "The Laws say this" - that's crap.

Based on the flow of the game, based on what referees have been allowing - Elizondo's decision was harsh.  Ya, the laws say what they say but in terms of the flow of the match, the diving, the fouls, the handbags - was it necessary to send Rooney off?  I don't think so.  A stern warning to him and a yellow card to both he and Carvalho would have done the trick IMO.

Agree...Disagree - that's my take.