球迷日记：世界杯落幕之后的失落

爱思英语编者按：说真的，世界杯确实是独一无二。反对这一观点的人大多会以奥运会为说辞。但奥运会并不会形成一个高潮，参与奥运会的所有国家也不是全都参加同一个运动项目。奥运会或许是全球化的，但感觉上并不像世界杯那样反映了全世界的状况。

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.

【中文译文】

几个小时以后当我醒来的时候，一切都将结束了。

现在就已经结束，但电视上仍在解说，欢呼雀跃的西班牙队被五彩纸屑淹没的场面还在全世界播出。经历了四周的FIFA世界杯观战历程之后，还是会有很多可想可谈的东西。

不过到了周一早上，我们年幼的儿子会说：“看足球吧。”而我们不得不告诉他，现在已经没球可看了。到周二，夏奇拉(Shakira)演唱的那首世界杯主题歌《非洲时刻》(Waka Waka)的彩铃下载听上去就会像上世纪80年代的摇滚乐一样遥远，而且我确信也会一样烦人。过不了多久，随着2014年巴西世界杯的资格赛开战，一切又会从头开始。

说真的，世界杯确实是独一无二。反对这一观点的人大多会以奥运会为说辞。但奥运会并不会形成一个高潮，参与奥运会的所有国家也不是全都参加同一个运动项目。奥运会或许是全球化的，但感觉上并不像世界杯那样反映了全世界的状况。

当然了，奥运会有诸多个人闪耀光芒的时刻，也有不少值得记取的团队比赛，而英超联赛(English Premiership)、全美职业橄榄球联赛(National Football League)和T20板球世界杯也莫不如是。

然而，观赏体育让我们得以有机会发挥自身能力、体会我们平时所不能触及的生活、去往自己所不了解的国度、看看我们一无所知的国家如何进行一项世所共知的运动，在这方面，世界杯是无与伦比的。

阿尔及利亚和美国、乌拉圭和加纳、朝鲜和巴西、日本和喀麦隆，这些国家还能在别的什么方面有机会同场公平竞技？还有什么别的体育竞赛能在像印度这样的国家占据报章头版？要知道，印度并未入围本届世界杯决赛圈，近期之内入围的希望也十分渺茫。

但如果打进四强的全是欧洲队伍又会如何？本届世界杯没有出现这种情况。本届世界杯的现实是，欧洲三支传统强队法国、意大利和英格兰早早出局，多支队伍爆冷进入第二轮甚至16强和八强。

本届世界杯，巴西和阿根廷这两个足球巨擘未能打进半决赛；众多守门员频频失误，裁判也是错漏频出；南非首次举办就奉献出一届漂亮的赛事，堵住了批评人士之口。

虽然是必然的，然而将这一切归总到一场决赛却是令人遗憾的，尤其是这样一场黯淡无光的决赛。

在扰乱西班牙压倒性的控球和传球战术方面，荷兰队比此前任何一支队伍都要成功。然而这也意味着两队都无法展露锋芒。充满挫败感，过于焦虑，最主要的还是担心自己会成为铸成大错、导致对方进球的罪魁祸首，如此一来，这场比赛简直就成了铲球大赛，黄牌满场飞（另外还有一张红牌）。

这场比赛称不上经典之战。它只不过是又一场未能在常规时间取得进球的决赛──在全世界范围内，要是你想让大批观众留在座位上观看比赛，这样的场面肯定不会是你想要的。

不过西班牙最终以1-0获胜，成为成功将好机会转化为进球的那支队伍。在比赛过程中，双方都浪费了众多进球机会。除此之外，这场胜利并没有太大的意义。

不过从个人角度来说，我希望看到荷兰获胜，就算没有其他理由，我也希望他们能击败导致其在上世纪70年代两次输掉决赛的心魔。如今这心魔卷土重来，带来了荷兰队第三场决赛的败绩。

不过我并不是为这个伤心，而是因为生活从此要回到正轨了。世界将会缩回原来的样子。曾经屡见于报章的那些国家之间的对立又将浮现。被足球的独特活力短暂颠覆的地缘政治秩序也将恢复本来面目。