世界盃落幕之後的失落(圖文)
【英文原文】
The Sadness of the FIFA World Cup Final
When I wake up in a few hours time, it will be over.
It is over now, but the commentary is still on television, the jubilant scenes of a bouncing Spain smothered in confetti are still beaming around the world. You still have something to think about, to talk about, after four weeks of watching the FIFA World Cup.
But by Monday morning, our infant son will say, 'Watch football,' and we'll have to tell him there's none on. By Tuesday, the caller tune download of Shakira's Waka Waka will sound as distant as a rock anthem from the 1980s, and as annoying I'm sure. Before too long, it will all start again from scratch with the qualifying rounds for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
There really is nothing like the World Cup. The Olympics are what most people who contest that point latch onto. But the Olympics doesn't build to a climax and they don't involve all the countries involved playing one sport. Global they may be, but they don't feel like they reflect the world the way the World Cup does.
Of course, the Olympics have moments of individual brilliance and some memorable team matchups, as do the English Premiership, the National Football League, the T20 cricket World Cup.
But, to the extent that all spectator sports offer us the chance to extend ourselves, to live outside our lives, to be in other countries we don't know, to see how countries we know nothing about play a sport we recognize, then the World Cup is unchallenged.
Where else do Algeria and the U.S. meet on a level playing field? Uruguay and Ghana? North Korea and Brazil? Japan and Cameroon? What other sporting competition generates front-page headlines in countries, like India, that aren't playing and have little prospect of reaching the finals anytime soon?
So what if all four teams in the last two finals have been European? That wasn't the story of this World Cup. This was as much about three mighty European footballing nations - France, Italy, and England - being dispatched in the first round. It was about the surprising teams who surfaced to get to the second round and even the rounds of 16 and eight.
It was about the Goliaths of Brazil and Argentina not getting to the semi-finals. It was about poor goalkeeping and poorer refereeing. It was about South Africa hosting it for the first time and defying the critics with a successful tournament.
It's a shame, even if it is inevitable, to have all this boil down to one final. Especially a final that was as underwhelming as that.
The Netherlands did a better job than any other team of disrupting Spain's devastating game of possessing and passing. But it meant that neither team got to shine. Frustration, over-anxiety, a primal fear of being 'the one' who makes the mistake that leads to 'the goal' delivered us a hackers' game and almost a full deck of yellow cards (as well as one red.)
It was not a classic. It was another final that resulted in no goals in regulation time - hardly the sport you would design for a mass audience glued to their sets around the world.
But in the end, Spain won 1-0 by being the team that successfully converted a good chance, compared with all the others both sides had squandered during the course of the game. There wasn't much more to the victory than that.
Yes, personally, I would have liked to see the Netherlands win, if for no other reason than to vanquish the demons that linger from losing in two finals in the 1970s. Now, instead, the demons will roar back, with a third final defeat and no victory.
But that's not why I'm sad. I am sad because now life returns to normal. The world will shrink. The national rivalries we are used to reading about will surface again. The geopolitical order, temporarily upended by the unique dynamics of football, will restore itself.
第 1 頁：英文原文第 2 頁：中文譯文
【中文譯文】
幾個小時以後當我醒來的時候，一切都將結束了。
現在就已經結束，但電視上仍在解說，歡呼雀躍的西班牙隊被五彩紙屑淹沒的場面還在全世界播出。經歷了四周的FIFA世界盃觀戰歷程之後，還是會有很多可想可談的東西。
不過到了週一早上，我們年幼的兒子會說：“看足球吧。”而我們不得不告訴他，現在已經沒球可看了。到週二，夏奇拉(Shakira)演唱的那首世界盃主題歌《非洲時刻》(Waka Waka)的彩鈴下載聽上去就會像上世紀80年代的搖滾樂一樣遙遠，而且我確信也會一樣煩人。過不了多久，隨着2014年巴西世界盃的資格賽開戰，一切又會從頭開始。
說真的，世界盃確實是獨一無二。反對這一觀點的人大多會以奧運會爲說辭。但奧運會並不會形成一個高潮，參與奧運會的所有國家也不是全都參加同一個運動項目。奧運會或許是全球化的，但感覺上並不像世界盃那樣反映了全世界的狀況。
當然了，奧運會有諸多個人閃耀光芒的時刻，也有不少值得記取的團隊比賽，而英超聯賽(English Premiership)、全美職業橄欖球聯賽(National Football League)和T20板球世界盃也莫不如是。
然而，觀賞體育讓我們得以有機會發揮自身能力、體會我們平時所不能觸及的生活、去往自己所不瞭解的國度、看看我們一無所知的國家如何進行一項世所共知的運動，在這方面，世界盃是無與倫比的。
阿爾及利亞和美國、烏拉圭和加納、朝鮮和巴西、日本和喀麥隆，這些國家還能在別的什麼方面有機會同場公平競技？還有什麼別的體育競賽能在像印度這樣的國家佔據報章頭版？要知道，印度並未入圍本屆世界盃決賽圈，近期之內入圍的希望也十分渺茫。
但如果打進四強的全是歐洲隊伍又會如何？本屆世界盃沒有出現這種情況。本屆世界盃的現實是，歐洲三支傳統強隊法國、意大利和英格蘭早早出局，多支隊伍爆冷進入第二輪甚至16強和八強。
本屆世界盃，巴西和阿根廷這兩個足球巨擘未能打進半決賽；衆多守門員頻頻失誤，裁判也是錯漏頻出；南非首次舉辦就奉獻出一屆漂亮的賽事，堵住了批評人士之口。
雖然是必然的，然而將這一切歸總到一場決賽卻是令人遺憾的，尤其是這樣一場黯淡無光的決賽。
在擾亂西班牙壓倒性的控球和傳球戰術方面，荷蘭隊比此前任何一支隊伍都要成功。然而這也意味着兩隊都無法展露鋒芒。充滿挫敗感，過於焦慮，最主要的還是擔心自己會成爲鑄成大錯、導致對方進球的罪魁禍首，如此一來，這場比賽簡直就成了剷球大賽，黃牌滿場飛（另外還有一張紅牌）。
這場比賽稱不上經典之戰。它只不過是又一場未能在常規時間取得進球的決賽──在全世界範圍內，要是你想讓大批觀衆留在座位上觀看比賽，這樣的場面肯定不會是你想要的。
不過西班牙最終以1-0獲勝，成爲成功將好機會轉化爲進球的那支隊伍。在比賽過程中，雙方都浪費了衆多進球機會。除此之外，這場勝利並沒有太大的意義。
不過從個人角度來說，我希望看到荷蘭獲勝，就算沒有其他理由，我也希望他們能擊敗導致其在上世紀70年代兩次輸掉決賽的心魔。如今這心魔捲土重來，帶來了荷蘭隊第三場決賽的敗績。
不過我並不是爲這個傷心，而是因爲生活從此要回到正軌了。世界將會縮回原來的樣子。曾經屢見於報章的那些國家之間的對立又將浮現。被足球的獨特活力短暫顛覆的地緣政治秩序也將恢復本來面目。
