世界杯要到了I Love Football

原文：http://0rz.com/vsopqr

by Ian Doyle, DPW West , 2011/9/15

IT’S the week Merseyside football fans have been dreading. There, in black and white, is the confirmation neither Liverpool FC nor Everton have European football this season.

這是讓Merseyside的足球迷感到害怕的一週。本季歐洲賽事的賽程表上確定沒有利物浦或者艾弗頓的比賽了。(這不是早就知道了嗎orz...)

While the likes of Birmingham City, Stoke City and Fulham traipse around the Continent in the Europa League, and Manchester City make their Champions League debut, players on either side of Stanley Park are left kicking their heels in frustration while watching on television.

然而像伯明罕、斯托克城和富勒姆都還能在歐陸賽場上為了歐羅巴打拼，曼城也獻上了歐洲冠軍聯賽的處女秀，而Stanlry Park兩側的球員只能在看電視的時候沮喪的踢踢自己的腳跟。

Ignore the nonsense about blessings in disguise and being able to concentrate on domestic competitions. Every player and every manager wants to pit their wits against foreign opposition, just as every supporter wants to fish out their passport to follow their team.

撇開那些幸好我們沒去踢歐羅巴所以我們可以專心在聯賽上的無稽之談。任何一個球員或者教練都想要和外國的球隊一較高下，就好像每個球迷都想翻出自己的護照然後飛去替自己的球隊加油一樣。

Well, nearly every manager.

當然啦，也不是每個教練都會這樣想。

Reading from Sam Allardyce’s well-thumbed book of piffle, this week Harry Redknapp has been bleating on about the burden qualification for Europe has put on a Tottenham Hotspur squad everyone knows has been underfunded and undermanned for many, many years.

從Sam Allardyce常常翻的那本愛說廢話的書我們知道，本週老雷抱怨說歐霸的資格賽對現階段的熱刺來說是個沉重的負擔，大家都知道這個球隊現階段的資金不足，而且人手已經短缺很多很多年了。

Modric：怪我囉!?

Probably deluded by Tottenham’s first European Cup appearance last season for 50 years, so insignificant is the Europa League to Redknapp that he omitted star man Rafael van der Vaart from the competition list without even telling him.

也許是被去年熱刺50年來第一次在歐冠賽場上亮相的成功給沖昏頭了，歐羅巴對老雷來說是無足輕重的，也因此他在沒有告知VDV的情況下就把這位隊上的球星給移出大名單了。

VDV：Show some respect。

Yes, the Europa League can be a pain with its Thursday-Sunday-Thursday slog. And UEFA don’t help themselves by continually allowing Champions League failures to drop into the tournament in the New Year.

的確，這種星期四-星期日-星期四交替的賽程會對球隊造成麻煩。而甚至UEFA也在幫倒忙，持續的讓那些歐冠聯賽挫敗的球隊得以在明年加入這項賽事。

But it’s a trophy, and so often the stepping stone towards greater things and acquiring better players.

但不論怎樣，這還是一座獎盃。而且常常就是因為有這些絆腳石才能轉化成一些更偉大的事，並且發掘出更棒的球員們。

Certainly, Liverpool or Everton should happily trade places with Tottenham. If Redknapp didn’t want his team in the Europa League, then why on earth was he so keen on qualifying for it last season?

毫無疑問的，利物浦或艾弗頓都會很樂於和熱刺交換位置。如果老雷不想要帶他的球隊去踢歐羅巴，那上賽季幹嘛又執著於最後的這一個席次。

VDV:......

Of course, right now somebody is probably wittering on ‘but the Premier League is more important as you make more money blah blah blah’.

Well here’s a fact. Money is for the club. Trophies, and the pursuit of them, are for the fans.

當然，現在也許會有人會說些"可是英超比較重要也可以帶來比較高的收入"等等之類的理由。但是告訴你一件事：賺錢是球隊的，獎盃和追求獎盃的那些過程則是屬於球迷的。

Too many forget that. Not least Mr Redknapp.

很多人都忘了這一點。不僅僅只是老雷。

這篇主角到底是在說利物浦還是熱刺阿XD

在這個熱鬧滾滾的歐洲賽事週裡，利物浦的缺席的確讓我這個球迷感到有一點點的遺憾。看到這篇的論調我有些贊同，也有些不贊同，我想大部分的球迷對於本季有沒有歐霸踢也會分成兩派吧。

不過總而言之，我覺得最後一部分寫得很不錯，尤其對球迷來說很中聽。沒比賽的日子是無聊的，有比賽看但沒有支持的隊伍是淡淡的哀傷。

畢竟歐冠也只有少數球隊能踢，這篇就翻給那些跟利物浦同病相憐的球迷們吧(笑)

也希望本季利物浦能重返榮耀，然後再上演一齣：那些年，我們一起追的獎盃。