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Books and Arts; Book Review;
Spanish football;Well red
How Spain learned to play the beautiful game;
La Roja: How Soccer Conquered Spain and How Spanish Soccer Conquered the World. By Jimmy Burns.
In football, timing counts: it makes the difference between a brilliant tackle and a red card, or a smartly taken goal and a raised offside flag. Jimmy Burns's publishers did not have to think too hard about when “La Roja”, his history of Spanish football, should appear: just before the European football championship, which kicks off on June 8th. The Spanish team won last time, in 2008, and are favourites to win again this year.
足球賽場上，時機至關(guān)重要。分毫之距，天壤之別。時機決定了是出色搶截，還是被出示紅牌。決定了是機智地反越位，還是被裁決為越位。之前，吉米·彭斯的出版負(fù)責(zé)人無須過于深思《紅色風(fēng)暴》此類描述西班牙足球歷史的書應(yīng)何時出版。就在6月8日開賽的歐洲杯之前，西班牙已經(jīng)贏得了于2008年舉行的上屆歐洲杯，并且他們還是今年歐洲杯的奪冠大熱。
Mr Burns starts and finishes his account with Spain's victory in the 2010 World Cup. That and the European win two years before put an end to a sorry pattern of underachievement. Spain had not won a major trophy since 1964. For years their playing lacked harmony. Footballers from Barcelona and Real Madrid, Spain's two dominant clubs, fought like dogs in domestic matches. But with wise leadership from successive coaches, a brilliant generation of players is now producing flowing, winning football in the national colours.
彭斯由西班牙隊奪得2010年世界杯記錄起，也以此為結(jié)尾。那一次勝利以及兩年前贏得的歐洲杯結(jié)束了那些讓人扼腕的反復(fù)失敗。在此之前，在1964年之后，西班牙隊從未贏過一項重要的榮譽。數(shù)年來，他們?nèi)狈椭C的合作。來自巴塞羅那和皇家馬德里，這兩家西班牙頂級俱樂部的球星，在國內(nèi)比賽中爭執(zhí)不斷。然而隨著一個又一個教練的智慧領(lǐng)導(dǎo)，這一代球藝高超的球員正在用一場又一場的勝利延續(xù)國家榮譽。
In the 19th century British engineers and managers had brought the game to the mining towns of southern Spain and to the industrialising north. The tale quickly became a Spanish one—in the early days, with a strong Basque flavour. Athletic Bilbao provided the core of the team that won the silver medal in the 1920 Olympics in a hard, fast style known as La Furia.
西班牙足球故事起源于19世紀(jì)，英國工程師和經(jīng)紀(jì)人將足球帶到了西班牙南部的礦業(yè)城鎮(zhèn)以及北部的工業(yè)區(qū)。很快，在很早的一段時間，這個故事就有了西班牙人的參與，而且?guī)в袧庥舻陌退箍孙L(fēng)味。1920年奧運會，西班牙隊贏得銀牌的關(guān)鍵正是畢爾巴鄂競技隊球員帶來的硬朗快速球風(fēng)，也就是眾所周知的”旋風(fēng)式”。
Much of the book deals with regional stories and rivalries. Mr Burns, born a stone's throw from Real's stadium but a Barca fan and an author of books about both clubs, traces their complicated interconnections with Spanish politics—notably, the civil war and the dictatorship of General Franco. It is a delicate task, involving the links between Barca and Catalan nationalism, Franco's use of the game for political ends and the intricate links between Basque nationalism, football and the Catholic church. Mr Burns, who has reported on the land of his birth for many years, threads his way skilfully through it.
書中大多記錄的是地方故事與競賽。彭斯出生在離皇家馬德里僅有一步之遙的地方，但卻是巴薩的球迷。他也撰寫過關(guān)于這兩個俱樂部的書。他的報道描繪了這兩家俱樂部與西班牙政治錯綜復(fù)雜的關(guān)系，尤其是在內(nèi)戰(zhàn)時期和佛朗哥獨裁時期。書里既有探討巴薩隊和加泰羅尼亞人的民族主義之間的聯(lián)系，又講述了佛朗哥利用足球比賽達到其政治目的的故事，以及巴斯克民族主義，足球以及羅馬天主教錯綜復(fù)雜的關(guān)系。這些對他來說，是一項微妙的挑戰(zhàn)。彭斯報道他的故鄉(xiāng)已有多年，這一次，他通過其高超的采訪技術(shù)，越過障礙，成功完成這項挑戰(zhàn)。
Britain's pioneers are gone and the national team may rule the world, but Spanish football has been continually refreshed by foreigners. Tours to and from South America taught Spaniards a thing or two in the 1920s. Real's wonder-team of the 1950s was led by Alfredo Di Stéfano, an Argentine, and Ferenc Puskas, a Hungarian. The most exciting player today is another Argentine, Lionel Messi (although he joined Barca as a boy). Mr Burns enthuses about all these and more—notably a Dutchman who played and coached Barca and remains a huge influence. Any football-mad reader will envy the author who can write: “The first time I met Johan Cruyff…”
英國作為足球開拓者的位置已經(jīng)消失殆盡。也許其國家隊仍將統(tǒng)領(lǐng)世界。然而西班牙足球力量卻有外國人源源不斷地注入新活力。20世紀(jì)20年代和南美的足球比賽，給了西班牙教訓(xùn)。50年代的皇馬銀河艦隊，有阿根廷球星阿爾弗雷多·迪·斯蒂法諾和匈牙利球王普斯卡什的帶領(lǐng)。而當(dāng)今最讓人興奮的足球運動員則是另一位阿根廷人，萊昂內(nèi)爾·梅西（盡管他加入巴薩時還是個小男孩）。彭斯對這一切很感興趣，而且更顯然的是，他對一個在巴薩踢過球，執(zhí)教過，擁有巨大影響力的荷蘭人更感興趣。任何足球狂熱讀者都會嫉妒這個作者可以這樣描繪道，“我第一次遇到約翰·克魯伊夫......”
Like many a football team, however, the book is let down a little by its finishing. Even the modern photos are in grainy black and white. Mr Cruyff is pictured in the orange strip of the Netherlands rather than Barca's red and blue. Arriving at Real, a clichéd David Beckham “l(fā)ike a proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes, calmly ran the gauntlet of the world's media”. Nevertheless, Mr Burns shows that there is far more to tell about Spanish football than today's success on the field.
不管怎樣，這本書就像大多數(shù)足球隊，其結(jié)尾部分多少讓人失望。更別說書中在現(xiàn)代拍的照片是以木紋黑白照的形式出現(xiàn)。約翰·克魯伊夫在相片中穿的是荷蘭的橙色服裝而非巴薩的紅藍服。大衛(wèi)·貝克漢姆加入皇家馬德里之后，曾有個關(guān)于他的陳詞濫調(diào)，“如眾生所知，鳳凰涅槃，于媒體槍林彈雨之前，沉著奔跑”盡管如此，彭斯的書向我們展示了，西班牙足球不僅僅只有勝利，更有許多說不完，道不盡的精彩足球故事。
