彩色世界杯？352名球員，只有12名穿黑色戰靴
Fancy footwear in an array of dazzling colours has been the order of the day. What are the most popular choices? And how many players have dared to wear old-fashioned black?
It used to be that coloured boots were the sole preserve of one or two flashy, flair players per football team. They were the exceptions to the rule: the cocky prima donnas to their journeymen teammates.
Not any more. From Hackney Marshes to the Premier League, everyone now wants to be the star. What's amazing is how quickly we've grown accustomed to flash Harrys. Back in 1970, Hummel caused shockwaves by sending a few star players out in its white footwear; now white is conclusively the new black.
I know, because I've spent the past fortnight obsessively staring at footballers' feet and making notes. In this World Cup, it seems, we've finally reached saturation point: coloured boots have now become so devalued that Puma have gone one step further, releasing the evoPOWER Tricks Boot – with one shoe in pink and the other in blue. Even Mario Balotelli thought they were a bit much ("I have to be honest, the first time I saw the Tricks boots, I thought the Puma guy was mad," he admitted).
As the World Cup has played out, so the dazzling array of coloured footwear has become ever more bewildering. White has become the predominant colour. But that's just for kick-off.
True flair players have had to up the ante: for the knockout stages, Neymar has even awarded himself his own golden boot, courtesy of Nike. Messi has gone one step further by attempting to fit every single available colour on one boot with his personal Adidas Lionel Messi 2014World Cup Birthday Boot – worn for the match against Nigeria on 25 June (the day after his 27th birthday).
Isn't this all getting a bit much? Whatever happened to the no-nonsense, socks-around-the-ankles (as opposed to over the knees) approach? It's hard to imagine Terry Butcher turning out in one – any – of the new designs. It's time someone put their foot down.
I engaged in some unscientific research, tallying the most popular colourways for the starting XI of each nation as the tournament progressed. The results were even more stark than expected: of 352 players, only 12 wore black boots in contrast to 118 in white (or variations thereof), 96 in yellow and 64 in orange.
Surely it's time for someone to shake up the status quo? It would be about the cockiest thing a player could do – like a modern-day George Best, with his bare shins taunting the leg-breakers – to turn out in ordinary black boots and make the statement that they don't need fancy footwear to dazzle the opposition.
The black-booted dirty dozen of the World Cup is heavy on goalkeepers, including Sergio Romero (Argentina), Asmir Begovic (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Charles Itandje (Cameroon), Joe Hart (England), Alireza Haghighi (Iran) and Maya Yoshida (Japan). An honourable mention, though, goes to Colombian playmaker Juan Cuadrado, who stepped out in a pair of black boots (albeit with a yellow flash) for the Group C clash with Greece on 14 June.
Who's special now?令人眼花繚亂的彩色戰靴在當下大行其道。究竟哪一種纔是球員們最熱衷的顏色，又有多少球員敢穿上老款的黑色戰靴呢？
據英國《衛報》7月1日報道，在過去彩色戰靴是個別球風華麗，富有天賦的球員專利。作爲球隊的領跑者，他們是例外。
但現在，彩色戰靴再也不是某個人的專利。無論是在哈克尼沼澤公園踢球的業餘足球愛好者，還是英超聯賽上的球星，沒有人不渴望成爲穿上彩色戰靴的新星。最讓人驚奇的是我們居然對閃閃發光的哈里斯戰靴習以爲常。回溯至1970年，Hummel（丹麥運動品牌）因爲贊助給個別球員白色的戰靴而引起譁然大波。但現在，白色最終重演了黑色的命運，成爲球場戰靴的大衆色。
我知道這些是因爲我在過去的兩週中一直緊盯着球員的戰靴並做了筆記。看起來在世界盃這個沒有硝煙的戰場上，我們對戰靴顏色的設計已經達到了飽和：彩色戰靴早已貶值，彪馬甚至做出更躍進的設計，他們所發佈的evoPOWER Tricks Boot ——紅藍鴛鴦配色戰靴，甚至讓巴神巴洛特利都覺得這雙鞋太前衛了，他承認：“老實說，當我看到特別版鴛鴦鞋時，我以爲彪馬的小夥伴們都瘋了。"
隨着世界盃比賽的打響，鮮豔奪目的戰靴變得更加讓人迷惑。白色早已成爲足球鞋的主導色，但其只用於開球。
球王們則對戰靴提出更高的要求：在淘汰賽階段，內爾馬穿上了由耐克提供的專屬土豪金戰靴。梅西則更進一步，他在6月25日對陣尼日利亞的比賽中踏上了阿迪達斯爲他打造的生日專屬戰靴，這雙戰靴試圖做到在一支球鞋中融入每個顏色。
這些設計是不是太過前衛了呢？不管對這些實用的球鞋做出怎樣的改變，都很難想象出特里·布切（曼聯前後位，以兇狠果斷著稱）穿上任何一款新款戰靴出場。這是堅持己見的時刻了。
我做了一些可能不太科學的調查，在352名球員中，只有12名穿了黑色戰靴，與之相反。有118人穿上了白色戰靴（或是以白色爲主體的戰靴），96人穿黃色戰靴，64人穿橙色戰靴。
登上世界盃黑色戰靴十二黑名單的通常是守門員，包括阿根廷的塞爾希奧·羅梅羅，波黑的貝戈維奇，喀麥隆的 查理斯·伊坦積，英格蘭的喬·哈特，伊朗的 Alireza Haghigh，及日本的吉田麻也。儘管如此，哥倫比亞的中場隊員胡安·庫亞德拉多也在6月14日對陣希臘的C組小組賽中踏上了一雙黑色戰靴（即使帶有一道黃色閃電標誌）登場。
這樣看來，穿哪種顏色戰靴的球員看起來更特殊呢?
