世界盃期間非球迷怎麼享受足球大綱

I was five years old when I first heard the word “soccer.” My best friend and I were changing into our fresh-out-of-the-box uniforms in his Mom’s station wagon, and I figured that the name of this sport we were about to try must have something to do with the long purple socks that we were trying to pull on over what we’d just learned were called shin guards.

A year later, once I’d learned to spell, I was baffled to see that the name of my favorite sport wasn’t “socker.” And so, the first soccer game I ever saw was the first game I played in. I probably scored a goal, too. I usually did. Not to brag, but as a five-year-old kid on the sun-scorched fields of North Texas, wearing a perforated purple jersey that hung down to my knees, I was an absolute menace in front of goal. This was in the mid-seventies, in the middle of the big US soccer boom. The original North American Soccer League had just formed. I was a Dallas Tornado fan. I saw them play the New York Cosmos with Pelé and Beckenbauer in the squad. I had a poster of Kyle Rote, Jr., on my wall. It seemed like every kid in America was playing soccer, even the girls. And the best of those little girls, who grew up playing right alongside the boys, went on to form the incredibly dominant first generation of the US women’s national soccer team. I enjoy thinking that I had something to do with that.

That’s how it started for me, and I haven’t stopped playing, watching, and loving soccer since. But that’s just me—oh, and about a gazillion other people around the world, and even one or two hundred in the United States. That’s a joke. Despite the running gag that “Amuricans hate soccer,” there are plenty of soccer fans in America, and most of us don’t care whether you want to join us or not. Just don’t tell us that soccer is boring because, believe it or not, that’s not a very interesting thing to say. For the rest of you, the interested and interesting folks out there who might not know much about the game but want to enjoy it a little more during this World Cup, here are a few tips.

Pick a team.

Life’s more fun when you have a dog in the race, so make a bracket. Place a friendly bet. Pick a team to go all the way, or just choose your side match to match. I like rooting for the underdog. Don’t know who the underdog is? America from here on out is an underdog.

Do the minimal research.

You are just five minutes on the Internet away from understanding the offside rule and how it affects the game. That’s the only tricky one. Another five minutes and you’ll know the next matchups, which teams are favorites, who has injuries, and even what their girlfriends look like if that’s your bag.

Don’t be a ball watcher.

If two players are a leg’s length from the ball, there are twenty others playing the game elsewhere on the field, and everything they do affects everything else. Soccer is a complex, ever-flowing chess game with running. Get into it. See how the movements of a player’s teammates give him passing opportunities or open up new space for him to dribble. What choices does he make? On defense, notice how the positioning of a single player a couple yards in any direction changes the team’s defensive “shape” and either closes down space or opens it up.

Enjoy the sociocultural anthropology of it all.

Pay attention to the rising and falling of individual and team confidence, the turning of momentum, the clashing of wills. Consider the delicate balance of a team’s commitment to offense or defense in terms of risk versus reward. Notice how countries and even continents play the game differently—I find that part endlessly fascinating.

Finally, and most important…

Appreciate what’s happening.

Don’t let the wide camera angles lull you into missing the physicality of it. It’s easy to start thinking that it’s perfectly reasonable for a kicked ball to go exactly where the player intended, or that a ball flying fifty yards through the air should by all logic settle down nice and easy on the toe of a person’s foot, but remember that a soccer ball is an inanimate object. Almost everything you’re seeing these players do with it has taken hours and hours, even years, to perfect. It’s like watching a constant stream of magic tricks. Enjoy that. Clap right there on the couch if you want to. That’s what I do.

Now, as many have said, it’s hard to truly appreciate this stuff if you’ve never played before, but if you haven’t, try this. Imagine you’re running as fast as you can. I mean a full-on panting sprint. Now imagine doing something else with your feet at the same time. Seriously, imagine it. It’s hard to wrap your head around the idea, isn’t it? Now imagine there’s another human trying his best to stop you. Imagine that other human is a brawny Brazilian nicknamed Hulk. When you start to see it that way, you realize that soccer isn’t all about the goals. It’s about all the amazing little things that happen along the way. That’s why Pelé called it the beautiful game. And because he called it that, I got picked on a lot as a kid.當我第一次聽到“足球”這個詞時，我才五歲。我和最好的朋友在他媽媽的旅行汽車裏換着新制服，我發現這上面有着足球這個名稱。我覺得它和我們正要試穿的紫色長筒襪一定有關係。後來，我才知道他叫護膝(shin guard)。

一年後，有一次我學了拼寫，我很困惑的看到我喜歡的運動不是“socker"。而我第一次看到的球賽正是我參加的那一場。我好像當時進了一個球。我通常都是這麼做的。這一點也不吹牛，我就像一個五歲男孩在德克薩斯州北部太陽烤焦的球場下，穿着一直掛到我膝蓋的紫色有孔球衣。在目標面前，我絕對是個巨大的威脅。當時正處於七十年代中期，美國的足球浪潮中期。那會，最初的北美足球聯盟剛剛成立。我是達拉斯龍捲風隊（Dallas Tornado）球迷，我看到他們與擁有和貝利和貝肯鮑爾的紐約宇宙隊(New York Cosmos)踢球。我將一張小Kyle Rote的海報貼在牆上。似乎，每個美國小孩都在踢球，包括女孩子也是。而這些女孩裏踢得最好的，長大後和男孩子一起踢球，併成爲美國第一代國家足球隊難以置信的主力。我很樂意地認爲我與此有關聯。

這就是我的足球生涯的開始，自那以後我從未停止踢球、看球和愛足球。但這僅僅是我，和許許多多世界上的人一樣的我，甚至在美國有一百或兩百個這樣的人。這是個玩笑。儘管有一些笑話說“美國人討厭足球”，美國事實上有許多的球迷。我們中的大多數都不關心你是否加入我們。只要你別告訴我說足球很無聊，因爲不管你信不信，這並不是一件說來很有意思的事。對於你們來說，有趣的或者有興趣的人，可能不是十分了解足球又想在世界盃期間享受到快樂的人，以下是一些建議。

選擇一支球隊

當你有隻狗在賽跑時，生活總會多一些樂趣，所以找點事來做。開始小賭一下。選擇一支球隊，由始至終支持，或者每一場比賽都選擇支持一個球隊。我喜歡支持弱者。不知道誰是弱者嗎？美國從現在起就是弱者。

別做太多功課

上網五分鐘，不要了解越位規則，也不要知道它怎麼影響比賽。這是最棘手的。另外五秒，你會在下一場知道，知道哪些球隊最受歡迎，誰受傷了，甚至如果你喜歡的話你能知道他的女朋友長得什麼樣。

不要僅僅觀賽

如果兩名球員離球的距離是一隻腿的長度，那麼其他二十名球員正在球場的其他地方玩呢，他們做的所有事情都能影響其他所有事情。足球是複雜的，持續變化，奔跑的的象棋比賽。投入，瞭解一個球員的隊友的移動如何給他提供一些機會或者爲他運球提供新的空間。他做了什麼決定？在防守階段，注意到一名球員任何方向上幾碼的移動如何改變球隊的防守陣型，是有空間了，還是沒有了。 享受這一切的社會文化人類學。

注意到個人和球隊信心的起起伏伏，狀態的轉變，意識的碰撞。考慮球隊在風險和回報上對攻守的微妙平衡。注意到各國甚至是不同的大洲如何踢球，這部分是非常有趣的。

最後也是最重要的……

欣賞正在發生的一切。

不要讓廣鏡頭促使你失去全局觀。很容易想到什麼方向是球員想要踢的合理完美的方向，或者球在空氣中通過所有邏輯合理設定完美落到五十碼外，輕易地落到球員腳上。但是要記住的是，足球是很沒人性的東西。幾乎你看到的一切的幕後是球員花了一個又一個小時甚至幾年練就的。這就像看無窮盡的魔術。享受它，如果你想的話就拍拍沙發。這就是我做的。 現在，就像許多人說的，如果你之前從未踢過球的話，你很難完全欣賞足球。不過，如果你真的沒踢過的話，那就試試這個，想象你儘可能快的跑。我指的是喘着粗氣的跑。現在想象，你正在同時用你的腳做其他的事情。很認真的，想象它。你很難在大腦充實這個想法，不是嗎？現在想象，這裏有另一個人正在盡全力阻止你。再想象這裏有個外號是“綠巨人”的強壯巴西人。當你開始這樣看待它時，你意識到足球不僅僅關於比分。他是關於所有發生的令人驚奇的小事。這就是爲什麼貝利說它時美好的運動，也是爲什麼他這麼說它，我在小的時候領略很多。