世界盃回顧:梅西是明星 但馬斯切拉諾纔是場上靈魂

LONDON — Less than half an hour into the marathon semifinal between the Netherlands and Argentina, there was a fearful cracking of heads between Georginio Wijnaldum and Javier Mascherano.

倫敦——在荷蘭與阿根廷馬拉松似的半決賽開始不到半小時時，吉奧吉尼奧·維納爾杜姆(Georginio Wijnaldum)和哈維爾·馬斯切拉諾(Javier Mascherano)的頭部猛烈相撞。

Neither was to blame. They went for the ball and did not see the collision coming. The side of Mascherano’s head hit the back of Wijnaldum’s shaven skull. Mascherano stumbled for a moment, his eyes wide open but apparently seeing nothing around him.

兩人都沒錯。他們都衝着球過去，並未料到會發生碰撞。馬斯切拉諾頭部的側面撞到了維納爾杜姆剛理過發的頭蓋骨後方。馬斯切拉諾蹣跚了幾步，眼睛圓睜，但似乎看不到周圍的任何東西。

Then he sagged to the turf and a doctor and other medical workers rushed to him. After all that has been said and written about concussions in sports, this was another moment to stop the play and be very, very circumspect about allowing a player to continue, even if he wanted to.

然後，他癱倒在草坪上，一名醫生和其他幾名醫護人員立即來到他身邊。雖然有各種關於體育中發生腦震盪的說法，但是這一次，又到了暫停比賽並慎重決定是否允許運動員繼續參賽的時候——即便運動員自己想繼續參賽。

Mascherano did eventually continue. He succeeded not only in persuading the medical staff that he knew what he was doing; he became arguably the most important and impressive player in the hour that followed, in the 30 minutes of extra time, and then in the dreaded shootout that decided the outcome of the most important contest of Mascherano’s career.

馬斯切拉諾最終還是決定繼續比賽。他不僅成功說服醫護人員他知道自己在做什麼，他或許還成了接下來的一小時、30分鐘的加時賽，以及隨後令人提心吊膽的點球大戰中最重要且最令人印象深刻的球員。點球大戰決定了馬斯切拉諾職業生涯中最重要的一場比賽的結果。

Argentina’s penalty takers kept a clear head and a clear aim for each of their kicks. Sergio Romero — the Argentine goalkeeper who has spent the past 12 months in limbo, loaned out by his Italian club Sampdoria and virtually unused by Monaco in the French league — became the headline hero with two agile penalty stops, low to his left and high to the right.

阿根廷的罰球隊員頭腦清醒，每一腳都有明確的目標。塞爾吉奧·羅梅羅(Sergio Romero)——過去一年被人遺忘的阿根廷門將，由意大利俱樂部桑普多利亞(Sampdoria)租給摩納哥(Monaco)，但他基本上也沒有在法國聯賽中上場——身手敏捷地攔住兩球，從而出現在報紙頭條，成了英雄。其中一球在左下方，一球在右上方。

But for Romero to get those chances, someone had to ensure that Argentina was still in the game after 120-plus minutes. And for once it wasn’t Lionel Messi who was his national team’s savior. Messi is the captain, but Mascherano is the leader of Argentina on the field.

不過，如果羅梅羅要得到這些機會，就必須保證阿根廷在120多分鐘後，仍未被淘汰。這一次，阿根廷國家隊的救世主不再是利昂內爾·梅西(Lionel Messi)。梅西是隊長，但馬斯切拉諾卻是阿根廷賽場上的領袖。

They play together on the same club, Barcelona. Messi, again, is usually the story there, and rightly so, given that he is so many times not just the game-winner, but an artist and a compelling sight for sore eyes.

他們同樣在爲巴塞羅那(Barcelona)足球俱樂部效力。在那裏，梅西同樣總是故事的主角，而且這也無可非議，因爲他不僅是球隊獲勝的關鍵人物，而且還是一名藝術家，能讓觀衆疲憊的雙眼爲之一亮。

Not this time, however. Not during this tight, at times numbing match in the teeming rain of São Paulo. Messi had his moments, but it was a defenders’ night, a contest of stubborn resilience and of one team’s doing all it could to cancel out the strengths of the other while still playing within the rules of the game.

不過，這次並非如此。在這場緊張卻時而令人麻木的比賽中不是這樣。比賽過程中，聖保羅正淅淅瀝瀝地下着雨。梅西數度成爲衆人的焦點，但是，這個晚上屬於防守球員。在這場比賽中，球隊表現出了頑強的毅力，每支隊伍都在比賽規則允許的範圍內竭盡全力地衝抵對方球隊的力量。

In that type of contest, Mascherano’s warrior-like mentality, his selfless running, covering, tackling and tenacity come to the forefront. For his national team, he plays as a shield to the defense in a midfield role that calls for vision, constant vigilance and the courage at times to put his body (and yes, his head) in the way of opposing attacks.

在這種比賽當中，馬斯切拉諾勇士般的精神，他無私的奔跑、掩護、攔截和韌勁都突顯了出來。爲了自己的國家隊，他作爲中場，成爲防線的盾牌，這個角色需要預見能力、高度的警覺性，有時還需使用自己的身體（對，他的腦袋）來抵擋進攻的勇氣。

The block tackle that Mascherano made to deprive Arjen Robben of a scoring chance in the final seconds of the first 90 minutes was arguably the interception of the entire tournament, which, so far, has run to 62 games.

在頭90分鐘比賽的最後關頭，馬斯切拉諾對阿爾揚·羅本(Arjen Robben)進行封堵，使羅本失去了一個進球機會。這也許是本次世界盃最出色的一次攔截。目前，本屆世界盃已經進行了62場比賽。

Robben’s speed had carried him beyond Argentina’s defense on the left. He was about to pull the trigger and shoot from close range. As he lifted his leg to make that shot, Mascherano dashed across from Robben’s right, made up the two or three yards and slid in to get his own foot to the ball first, diverting it away from the Dutchman in the nick of time.

羅本速度很快，從左側突破阿根廷防線。他當時正準備起腳近距離射門。正當他擡腿射門之時，馬斯切拉諾突然從他右後側兩三米的地方衝過來，用滑鏟搶先碰到球，及時把球踢出了荷蘭人的控制範圍。

Clearly, Mascherano was seeing things well enough. His judgment could not be faltered. His defenders had lost sight of Robben, his goalkeeper was frozen to his line, and everything depended on Mascherano’s timing that interception to perfection. A fraction either way, and he risked making contact with the Dutchman, who is known for his, shall we say, unsure footing in the penalty box.

很明顯，馬斯切拉諾具有非常好的預見能力。他的判斷不會出錯。他的防守隊員沒有看緊羅本，門將則呆站在門線附近，一切都因爲馬斯切拉諾對封堵時機的精準把握而達到完美。不論哪個方向稍有偏差，他都可能會碰到羅本。而我們可以這樣說，羅本可是以在禁區內身形不穩而聞名的。

There were times during that long, drawn-out stalemate that concentration was the key to everything. And who was the most concentrated Argentine, who was making sure every colleague was alert and awake to the danger of switching off? Javier Mascherano, the man Argentines know as “El Jefecito,” or The Little Chief.

在這個漫長、持久的僵局中，注意力有時是一切的關鍵。那麼誰是注意力最集中的阿根廷球員，誰又能保證每名隊員都保持警覺，清醒地認識到鬆懈的危險？哈維爾·馬斯切拉諾。阿根廷人稱他爲“El Jefecito”，即“小首領”(The Little Chief)。

He isn’t any longer the designated captain, because Messi, leading by example, is entitled to that honor. Messi, however, is truly a passive example on the field, a player who is tackled rather than the one doing the tackling, a man whose antenna is tuned to producing moments of imagination, beauty and decisive goal scoring.

他不再是官方指定的隊長，因爲以身作則的梅西的確有資格擁有這份榮譽。然而，梅西在賽場上的表現實在被動。他總是被攔截的對象，而不會去攔截別人。他的天線總是需要別人調好，才能帶來充滿想象力、美麗和果斷進球的時刻。

Argentina depends upon him, perhaps too much so. When the goals dry up, when the opposing team is as concentrated on stopping him as the Netherlands was on Wednesday, he can become as isolated as any other player, almost impotent, which is not something we say about Messi very often.

阿根廷很依賴他，或許這種依賴有些過分。當進球無望，對方球隊像週三的荷蘭隊那樣專心攔截他時，他就會變得與其他球員一樣孤立，甚至會無能爲力，這可不是我們經常對梅西作出的評價。

When that does happen, others are required to step to the plate. A keeper like Romero who guesses right two times out of four in the penalty decider. Defenders like Pablo Zabaleta, another who shook off head injury, though in his case a bloodied mouth. Zabaleta stuck like glue to the Dutch wingers, except in the crucial 90th minute when Robben danced free.

當這種情況出現時，其他人就需要挺身而出。在點球決勝中)，門將羅梅羅四次射門中猜中兩次。還有巴勃羅·薩巴萊塔(Pablo Zabaleta)等防守隊員。他也撞到了頭部，不過他是嘴部出血。薩巴萊塔像膠水一樣粘住荷蘭邊鋒不放，不過在關鍵的第90分鐘時，羅本靈活地擺脫了防守隊員。

At that moment came the timely intervention of Mascherano. Seeing him at the heart of Argentina’s defiance this week takes me back to October 2008, when Diego Maradona began his brief and ultimately failed attempt to manage the national team to victory at the last World Cup.

就在此時，馬斯切拉諾及時插手干預。看到他成爲阿根廷本週反擊戰的核心球員時，我彷彿又回到了2008年10月。當時，迭戈·馬拉多納(Diego Maradona)試圖帶領阿根廷國家隊獲得上一屆世界盃(World Cup)冠軍，他的嘗試時間短暫，而且最終失敗。

“My team,” Maradona said when he accepted the challenge, “is Mascherano and 10 others.”

“我的隊伍，”馬拉多納在接受這項挑戰時說，“是馬斯切拉諾與其他10名隊員。”

The 10 included Messi, whom Maradona saw as the individual superstar (in Diego’s own image). Whatever else Maradona got right or wrong in his 20 months in charge, his instinct was right about Mascherano. A team can be built around a special player, but there are times when it needs leadership to gut out the contest.

這10名隊員中也包括梅西。在馬拉多納看來，他只是一個獨立的超級明星（與他自己並無二致）。在馬拉多納接管球隊的一年零8個月裏，不管他的是非對錯，他對馬斯切拉諾的直覺都正確無誤。我們可以圍繞一名特殊球員建立一支球隊，但有時候球隊需要領導力，才能殺出重圍。