誰將捧得大力神杯?
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If you have spent any time in Brazil, you will understand why Ronaldo summed it up recently as "football for us is more than five stars on a shirt, it is a lifestyle". It is everywhere. The beaches are floodlit so games can go on until the early hours. Goalposts rise from the sand as far as the eye can see. And it does not take long watching the kids from thefavelas to realise there is one thing they consider mandatory here from a very early age. A good first touch. It is the perfect setting. Yes, Brazil has its problems in the buildup to these finals and they are not trying to pretend anything else. Yet there is still something magical about what to expect from 12 June to 13 July at the home of jogo bonito. Just look at Argentina's forward line: Messi, Agüero, Lavezzi, Higuaín. Or consider some of the other superstars who will be illuminating the Maracan?, Arena Amazonia, Estádio Nacional and all the other venues. Ronaldo, Robben, Ribéry … and that's just the Rs. Maybe even Rooney will turn up this time. It will not be straightforward, for any of the European teams. This is the seventh time the tournament has been staged in South America and on the previous six occasions it has been won by a team from the same continent. Twice by Brazil, twice Uruguay and twice Argentina. Roy Hodgson, asked why this was the case, talked about it not just being the heat and humidity. "It's the grass as well," he said. "It doesn't bounce in the way we're used to." The Football Association has brought in its own turf specialist to try to recreate what to expect at their training ground. An official request has gone in to establish if the grass will be cut the same length at every stadium. The first thing England really need to know is that the teams who take care of the ball, and spend less energy chasing to get it back, will inevitably go the furthest in these conditions. Spain tick an awful lot of the boxes as they set about defending the trophy before the inevitable break-up of the Xavi Hernández-Andrés Iniesta double act. There have surely never been two other players in history who have passed the ball to one another with greater regularity (or accuracy). But Xavi is 34 and Iniesta has just turned 30. This will be their final hurrah together in this competition. Can Spain repeat their success of 2010? They are in a difficult group, alongside Holland, Chile and Australia, but no one should discount them when you stop to think about the list of players – among them Juan Mata, Fernando Torres, David de Gea, Fernando Llorente, Alvaro Arbeloa, Isco, Carles Puyol and David Villa – who have been left out of Vicente del Bosque's squad or were fretting for their place. They also have Diego Costa now, so it would be a surprise if there is a return to the 4-6-0 formation that formed part of their successful Euro 2012 campaign. Costa's defection, after winning two caps for Brazil in March last year, threatens serious repercussions for the host nation when the one thing they clearly lack is a centre-forward. Neymar offers a certain amount of fantasia but the 22-year-old has had an erratic season at Barcelona and there is too much reliance on him to carry the national team on his slight shoulders. Otherwise, the onus is on Fred, who has a decent scoring record for Fluminense but was whistled when England played at the Maracan? last June. The backup is J? – once of Manchester City – and look out for Bernard, a wide player Luiz Felipe Scolari has described as having "joy in the legs". A nice quote even if a trio of Fred, J? and Bernard sounds more like a cribbage night with the Rotary Club than three names to inspire fear among the world's best defences. Argentina look the better bet. Carlos Tevez would walk into most teams yet he does not get into Alejandro Sabella's squad and the bottom line is that if Lionel Messi plays at his best, this team will be close to unstoppable. It is an if because it has not always happened for Messi in the colours of La Albiceleste but he turns 27 the day before Argentina's final game in Group F against Nigeria and if he really wants to be revered in the same way as Diego Maradona, the only thing that really goes against him is that he has never sprinkled his stardust over a World Cup. He has the opportunity to bury the argument. And Messi, on top form, has the gifts to win the tournament almost by himself. Portugal only squeaked in via the play-offs and will do well to get through a group featuring Germany, Ghana and USA, even with Cristiano Ronaldo in their midst. Germany and Holland always deserve to be taken seriously – neither team lost a single game in qualification – and a talented Belgium should be good fun to watch. Yet if there is a dark horse in Brazil, it is probably one of the South American nations. Think back to the way Chile outplayed England at Wembley in November. Or consider the dangers a fit Luis Suárez and Edinson Cavani will pose Uruguay's opponents. One certainty: Suárez, should he recover from surgery in time, will be absolutely determined to put one over on England, just for starters. The draw has clearly not been kind for England but at least this time expectations are mostly realistic. No one, in tabloidese, is roaring "We're gonna win it" and everyone, deep down, knew where Greg Dyke, the FA chairman, was coming from with that infamous slit-throat gesture at the World Cup draw. Hodgson will be better prepared this time, however. He was parachuted into the England job with barely six weeks to prepare for Euro 2012 and had to muddle together a squad when an entire XI were missing through injury. He now has a structure to his team and the basis of a plan. More than anything, he has shown he can move away from the "dark age" tactics and his reputation as a rigid 4-4-2 man. All the same, the opening game against Italy automatically conjures up memories of what happened in Ukraine two years ago and a couple of things in particular. First, Andrea Pirlo doing the Panenka penalty on the gurning, arms-flapping, Grobbelaar-impersonating Joe Hart, a moment of beauty that was missing only the words: "Ciao, bambino". And, second, the statistic that revealed England's most successful pass completion came from Hart, with 18 goal-kicks up the pitch to Andy Carroll, a second-half substitute. What a sorry story that told of England's performance. This England will need to show more refinement if they are to overcome the difficulties of Group D. That in itself would constitute success of sorts but, equally, there is no point being defeatist purely for the sake of it. Hodgson has not said England can win it but, then again, he hasn't said they can't either. It's a long shot – OK, a very long shot – but it would be nice to think that the good players in England's squad can show that is what they are: good players. It is when they underperform that it jars so much. Though we have said all that before, of course. |
如果你曾去過巴西，你就會明白為什么最近羅納爾多會如此說巴西足球： “足球對于我們的意義遠不止球衣上那五顆星，它是一種生活方式”。 足球隨處可見。 海灘燈光常明，足球活動因此可以持續到凌晨。目所能及的沙灘上，都佇立著門柱。不用過多久，你就會意識到，那些貧民窟的孩子自小就認為踢足球是他們必須做的事。孩子們第一次接觸足球的場景一定很完美。 巴西隊確實在為決賽圈的組隊方面確實存在一些問題，但他們并沒有想掩蓋。不過，人們仍好奇，在6月12日至7月13日期間，在桑巴足球的主場里會發生什么令人期待的事。先來看看阿根廷隊的前鋒陣容：梅西、阿奎羅、拉維齊、伊瓜因。 或者來考慮一些其他的超級巨星們，他們這些球星會令馬拉卡納球場(Maracana)，瑪瑙斯亞馬遜競技場（Arena Amazonia），國家體育館（Estadio Nacional）等場地閃光熠熠。羅納爾多、羅本、里貝里……，這還只是一些以字母“R”開頭的球星。 甚至是魯尼，這次也有可能會出場。 本屆世界杯對歐洲任一球隊都不是輕而易舉的比賽。這屆世界杯是在南美洲舉辦的第七屆世界杯了而且前六屆的冠軍都是由南美洲的球隊奪得。 巴西隊、烏拉圭隊和阿根廷隊都分別奪冠兩次。 有人問及原因時，羅伊·霍奇森（Roy Hodgson）說這不僅是熱度和濕度的原因。 “也和草地有關，”他還說道。 “它和我們的場地反彈情況不同。”國際足聯也帶來了他們自己的皮草專家試圖重現訓練場地的場景。是否每個場館的草都要剪成同一高度呢，官方已經確認了這一要求。那些看球的球隊，消耗較少的能量就能把球追回來。在這樣的情況下，這些球隊當然能走得最遠。這也是英格蘭隊最關心的。 哈維·埃爾南德斯（Xavi Hernandexz）和安德雷斯·伊涅斯塔(Andres Iniesta)這對搭檔將面臨解散。西班牙隊已做足了準備，因為他們得為奪得大力神杯而戰斗。可以肯定的是，有史以來從未有過其他兩位球員像他們一樣，傳球給對方能如此有規律（或者說是精準） 。但是哈維已經34歲了，伊涅斯塔也剛滿30歲。 這次世界杯會是他們最后一次搭檔出場的世界杯。 西班牙隊會再現2010年的成功嗎？ 西班牙隊身處死亡之組，小組中還有荷蘭隊、智利隊和澳大利亞隊。但當你停下來思考一下西班牙隊的球員時，你就不會不重視西班牙隊了——球員中有胡安·馬塔、托雷斯、大衛·德赫亞、費爾南多略倫特、阿爾瓦羅·阿貝羅阿、伊斯科、卡爾斯·普約爾和大衛·比利亞——而且這還沒有提及名教練博斯克文森特·德爾·博斯克，這些球員們都為了奪得好名次而感到努力。迭戈·科斯塔現在也效力于西班牙隊。2012歐洲杯西班牙隊奪了冠軍，當時西班牙隊使用的就是4-6-0陣型，如果這次再出現這樣的陣型，人們會感到很驚喜的。去年三月，科斯塔從曾獲得過兩屆世界杯冠軍的巴西隊轉會至西班牙隊，他的轉會對巴西隊的影響很大。很明顯的一點是，巴西隊少了一位中鋒。 內馬爾給了人們很大的希望。但他才22歲，在巴塞羅那的這個賽季，他的表現并不穩定。巴西國家隊在他瘦弱的肩膀上壓了太重的擔子，對他期望太高了。此外，巴西隊也很看好弗雷德。他在弗魯米嫩塞隊時，他的得分記錄是相當不錯的。但去年六月在馬拉卡納體育場對陣英格蘭隊的那場比賽中，他的戰績并不佳。若也是相當不錯的后備——他以前是曼徹斯特城隊的——還可以密切關注一下伯納德，他是一位比較多能的球員，路易斯·菲利佩·斯科拉里就說過伯納德很享受這種“腿的樂趣”。有個比較恰當的引用，說，與其說弗雷德，若，伯納德這三人的名字令全世界最好的后衛都黯然失色的話，不如說這三人組合是和美國扶輪國際玩了一晚的克里比奇紙牌游戲。 阿根廷的實力看起來更強。卡洛斯·特維斯曾效力于多支隊伍，但他還未為薩維利亞執教的阿根廷隊效力過。再不濟的話，如果梅西發揮出他的最佳水平的話，阿根廷隊是無法阻擋的。之所以說如果，是因為梅西效力于阿根廷國家足球隊期間他并不總是能發揮出最佳水平。而且就在那場阿根廷對陣尼日利亞的F組小組決賽的前一天，他滿27歲了。如果梅西想像迭戈?馬拉多納那樣受人尊敬的話，他唯一要做的就是擺脫掉世界杯明星這一光環。他還是有機會不在乎這些爭論的。況且，梅西的球技是世界級的水平，梅西他自己有贏得世界杯的天賦。 葡萄牙隊很順利地沖進了決賽圈，在接下來的小組決賽中，他們也會很順利地突圍。葡萄牙隊所在的小組中還有德國隊、加納隊和美國隊。克里斯蒂亞諾·羅納爾（Cristiano Rolnaldo）多也在其中。德國隊和荷蘭隊一向以來都是值得重視的——在資格賽中，這兩支球隊一場球都沒輸過——有實力的比利時隊也是值得一看的。 然而如果巴西世界杯上出現一匹黑馬的話，那很可能會是南美的某個國家。回想一下去年11月在溫布利，智利隊就曾打敗過英格蘭隊。或者考慮一下烏拉圭隊，隊中的路易斯·蘇亞雷斯和埃迪森-卡瓦尼這兩位球員會是其他隊強有力的對手。有一點可以肯定的的是，蘇亞雷茲已經從手術中康復過來，很及時，這對于英格蘭隊來說，肯定會造成很大的威脅。 而且這才是剛剛開始。 對英格蘭隊來說，這次的抽簽并不有利。但至少這次，人們對英格蘭隊的期望比較實際了。在小報的報道中，沒有人會大聲嚷嚷著說“我們會贏”。而且實際上每個人都知道足聯主席格雷戈·戴克從何處來。他在世界杯抽簽中曾作出過那臭名昭著的類似割喉嚨的手勢。 但是，這次霍奇森也會好好準備的。他到英格蘭隊時，距備戰2012歐洲杯只剩6周時間了。那時英格蘭隊正因他們的十四號球員因傷缺席而一片混亂。現在，他在球隊和計劃方面的思路都很清晰。不僅如此，他還表示他不會再用“黑暗時代”戰略了。霍奇森曾因其固定的4-4-2陣型而出過名。 與此同時，開幕賽中對陣意大利隊，讓人不由地想起兩年前在烏克蘭發生的那些事。人們對有些事的印象尤其深刻。首先會想到，安德烈亞·皮爾洛（Andrea Irlo）在罰勺子點球(Panenka penalty)時模仿喬·哈特(Jo Hart)，做出用手臂拍打格羅貝拉爾的動作。那美景正消失，但人們還是會想起那句話：“再見了，小孩”。其次是，數據顯示，英格蘭隊最成功的向前傳球來自哈特。他在下半場時替補出場，卻在場地中向安迪·卡羅爾（Andy Carroll）踢了18個球門球。這樣的事，對英格蘭隊來說是多么不好啊。 英格蘭隊如果想從D組中突圍，他就得從多方面進行改良。雖然說英格蘭隊本身就有成功的各種可能性，但同樣地，他僅僅因為這一原因而失敗了的話是沒有意義的。 雖然霍森奇沒有說英格蘭隊會贏，但他也沒有說英格蘭隊會輸。奪冠需要很長時間，是的，需要非常長的時間，但一想到英格蘭隊的球員陣容，你就會很看好這些球員，他們會向我們證明他們是好球員。當他們表現不佳時，我們仍會很困惑。當然了，雖然說我們之前就說過這些。 |
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Australia had a bumpy ride through the Asian qualifying groups, losing to Oman and Jordan, En route to finishing second behind Japan to seal a world cup place. >詳細>>
