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本文摘自Football 365的This World Cup opener didn’t only feel weird, it was also extremely boring一文，原作者为Ian King

We all know what we all know about Qatar, about how they’ve had to build a national team in just over ten years, as well as having a go at building a football culture at the same time. They don’t seem to have been very successful at either. There was nothing for the commentary team to talk about, throughout much of the match. No history or narrative, nothing for them to sink their teeth into. It’s context-free football. It feels like we’re watching two people play a video game rather than the opening match of a tournament which until this year had felt as though it was part of my circadian rhythm.

我们都知道我们所能了解到卡塔尔队的一切，包括他们是如何在短短十多年的时间里建立起一支国家队，同时尝试构建一种足球文化的。然而，他们在这两方面做的似乎都不太成功。在这场比赛的大部分时间里，评述员基本没什么活，因为根本没什么能称得上历史或值得叙述的场面，也没什么能深入分析的东西。这场球让人感觉仿佛不像是在看世界杯揭幕战，而是在观看两个人玩电子游戏，就像我日常生活的一部分。

sink one's teeth into：认真进行，集中精力于。个人理解这里表示评述员就赛况进行详细解说和分析

circadian：昼夜节律的，生理节奏的 connected with the changes in the bodies of people or animals over each period of 24 hours

And of course, within three minutes of the start we had another reminder of the ways in which the joy is so routinely sucked out of the game these days, an Ecuador goal varred from the record books in record time. It says a lot about the level of bad faith surrounding this tournament that social media went straight for the assumption that the match had been rigged, and it didn’t help that the broadcasters seemed extremely coy about either showing a replay of it or offering any explanation for what had happened, either.

当然，开赛三分钟后，又一件事提醒我们，如今球赛中的乐趣是如何被“例行”剥夺的，那就是厄瓜多尔的进球被VAR吹掉了（注意这里var做了动词）。这充分说明了赛前社交媒体称这场比赛被操纵的说辞根本站不住脚。但即使这样，现场的转播还是似乎非常含糊其辞，他们既没有立即回放，也没有对此做出任何解释。

sucked out of：从...吸出，抽出

rig：(欺骗性地) 幕后操纵 If someone rigs an election, a job appointment, or a game, they dishonestly arrange it to get the result they want or to give someone an unfair advantage.

coy：这里指不愿谈及的，含糊其辞的 If someone is being coy, they are unwilling to talk about something that they feel guilty or embarrassed about.

After two minutes of deliberation, they called the goal back. Across the world, eyebrows raised in unison. Ten minutes later, a graphic which may have been produced using a Commodore Amiga flashed briefly across the screen confirming the decision, with a little graphic representation of two footballers. It took until the BBC’s half-time analysis for the incident to be shown again in full. The decision to rule the goal out may have been technically correct, but the timing was unfortunate for those who had to rule it out so early in the game, but the decision to barely show any replays of the incident was perplexing.

经过两分钟的审议，进球无效，世界各地球迷的眉毛都炸起来了。十分钟后，一个粗糙得像Commodore Amiga（世界第一种多媒体处理软件）制作的图像在屏幕上短暂闪过，展示了两位球员的动作模拟，确认进球无效。直到BBC播放中场分析时，人们才看到其前因后果。虽然这一判罚在技术层面可能没毛病，但对于那些在比赛刚开始就不得不接受这个判罚的人来说可谓是不幸的，而且几乎不进行回放着实令人费解。

deliberation ：仔细考虑，审议 Deliberation is the long and careful consideration of a subject. 这里指VAR审议

in unison：一致，完全一致地

perplexing：令人不解的 If you find something perplexing, you do not understand it or do not know how to deal with it.

Qatar never looked like making the most of that early escape. All the conditioning in the world, the very best facilities and all the money that can be thrown behind you isn’t worth very much if you just haven’t got very good players. It didn’t help that they occasionally resembled rabbits trapped in a car’s headlights. Their nerves were very evident. Ecuador were better on every level; quicker, fitter, better organised and more clinical. Enner Valencia, who’d had the very early goal disallowed, popped up with a further two before half-time and Qatar had nothing of substance to offer in return. They’re the first host nation to lose an opening game in the World Cup.

卡塔尔似乎整场都没有从刚开始的阴霾中走出来。如果你没有非常优秀的球员，那么即使给你世界上最好的训练条件和设施，投入所有的财富，都不值得什么。他们大部分时间内都如同热锅上的蚂蚁，紧张之情溢于言表。厄瓜多尔的球员在各方面都更加出色：他们速度更快，身体素质更好，组织更有条理，终结能力也更强。瓦伦西亚在比赛刚开始时的进球被判无效，但他在半场结束前又很快打进两球，而卡塔尔没有给予任何实质性的回击，成为世界杯首个首战失利的东道主。

rabbits trapped in a car’s headlights：这里借用了俚语a rabbit in the headlights ，表示“因紧张而说不出话”，十分紧张

pop up：突然出现 If someone or something pops up, they appear in a place or situation unexpectedly. 这里指很快进球

substance ：这里指实质性的回击 Substance is the quality of being important or significant.

The second half became a 45-minute long exercise in game management, as Ecuador rolled the ball around the pitch amongst themselves under little to no pressure from the hosts. They’d done enough with their first half blast, and they knew it. And it felt as though the home crowd knew that this particular jig was up, too. Crowd shots became increasingly thin on the ground in the second half but empty seats, presumably vacated by Qatar fans who decided they had better things to do than sit there and watch that, were visible on some of the longer shots. By the closing stages, they were much more visible.

下半场则成为了厄瓜多尔45分钟的比赛掌控练习。他们在东道主几乎没有施加压力的情况下，开始倒脚传球。他们上半场的爆发已经足够取胜，他们自己也知道这一点。主场的观众好像也感觉到这场特殊的比赛已经结束咧。于是乎，下半场给到观众的镜头越来越少，在一些长镜头中还出现了空座位——可能是卡塔尔球迷腾出来的——他们觉得自己有更好的事情可以做，而不是坐在现场观看比赛。到了最后几分钟，空座位更扎眼了。

vacate：离开，辞去。这里指腾出（座位） If you vacate a place or a job, you leave it or give it up, making it available for other people.

So… that then, is it? An evening that started out with at least of a veneer of controversy ended up… pretty boring, really. Perhaps the point is that you can’t just transplant football to the middle of the desert, build a handful of enorm-o-domes and expect it to be an authentic-feeling football experience in any realistic way.

就这样结束了？一场以争议的虚饰拉开的大幕，最终却以无聊收场。也许关键在于，你不能仅仅将足球移植到沙漠中间，建造几个巨大的圆顶，然后指望它以任何现实的方式给你真实的足球体验。

veneer：虚饰 If you refer to the pleasant way that someone or something appears as a veneer, you are critical of them because you believe that their true, hidden nature is not good.

transplant：移植，转移 To transplant a plant, person, or thing means to move them to a different place.