The 2014 World Cup will feature many great players and a large number of unpredictable ones, but it's the ones who are a combination of these things — a mix of talent with a penchant for getting themselves into situations that make sitcom writers rethink their entire lives — who are truly dangerous. They are the ones who can make the deepest impact on a tournament. These are the World Cup's most dangerous players (in every sense of the word).
2014世界杯让许多杰出球星和潜在的新星们大有可为,但有一些人是复杂的混合体,让喜剧作家们不禁回想这些人的职业生涯,他们身上有着足球天赋,却总喜欢给自己找麻烦,真是十分“危险”。但他们能凭一己之力改变一场比赛,这就是接下来要介绍的世界杯最“危险”的球星们。
Luis Suarez, Uruguay
As it turns out, inflicting mental anguish upon Ghana and challenging everyone's concept of "playing within the rules" in the 2010 World Cup by getting sent off for committing an intentional handball on the goal line that led to a missed penalty and Uruguay advancing to the semifinals has been one of the least controversial things Luis Suarez has done in the last four years. Since then, he's been banned for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, and he's bitten an opponent in an eruption of animalistic rage for the second time in his career. this amongst other handballs and dives and assorted acts of violence. The longstanding rumor that he blooded a referee with a headbutt when he was 15 years old even prompted an investigation by ESPN's Wright Thompson.
But since returning from his most recent ban for biting another human being while playing, Suarez has buried that past horribleness in an avalanche of goals, pushing Liverpool from seventh to second in the Premier League by scoring a record-matching 31 goals in just 33 appearances. He recently told Sports Illustrated that he's in the midst of trying to change his "bad boy image," but after weathering the painful emotions of narrowly missing out on the Premier League title last month and then being hobbled by a knee injury, can he remain in control under the intense pressure of the World Cup? Or will he score a hat trick against England and then literally eat someone?
路易斯·苏亚雷斯(Luis Suarez), 乌拉圭
在2010年世界杯上,苏亚雷斯通过“最大程度利用规则”,在门线上蓄意手球阻挡进球被罚下,但加纳队点球罚失,乌拉圭最终挺进半决赛,留给加纳队巨大的精神痛苦。这无疑是他近四年来最受争议的行为。之后,他还因为对曼联后卫埃弗拉(Patrice Evra)的种族歧视行为而遭禁赛,并且野兽般情绪的爆发,在比赛中撕咬对手,第二次遭到禁赛。更不用说手球、假摔和各种暴力行为。还有一个多年来的传闻,据说他15岁时一头撞向裁判而见红,这甚至引起了ESPN台赖特·汤普森(Wright Thompson)的兴趣要进行调查。
不过,在因撕咬对手遭到禁赛后回归赛场以来,苏亚雷斯用疯狂进球掩盖了过去的恐怖行径,也将利物浦从英超第七带到了第二的位置,在33场比赛中就打进31球,这是一个破纪录的表现。他最近告诉《体育画报》(Sport Illustrated),自己正试图改变“坏男孩”的形象。然而,在经历了五月以微弱劣势痛失英超冠军并受膝伤影响的情况下,苏亚雷斯能否在世界杯的巨大压力下稳定发挥?还是他会对英格兰上演帽子戏法,然后真的“生吃”某个球员?
Antonio Cassano, Italy
An off-and-on member of the Italian squad for over 10 years, this will be 31-year-old Cassano's first World Cup after joining Parma and having his best season in some time. That, of course, after recovering from a stroke and subsequent heart surgery in 2012.
This is a man who, in the absence of Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimovic, is probably the only player at the 2014 World Cup who has his own word — "Cassanata" — which was coined by former Roma and current Russia manager Fabio Capello as a euphemism for Cassano's easily sparked tantrums and defiance of societal expectations. This is also a man who claimed in his autobiography that he's "often played great matches after having sex." And that while he was playing for Real Madrid, he had a waiter friend who would bring three or four croissants to his hotel room after he finished the deed (he estimates he's been with 600 to 700 women) and then escort his partner away so he could eat his pastries in peace.
Since the stroke, he has calmed down a bit, as tends to happen with those sorts of things, and he lost weight for the World Cup by reducing his focaccia intake. He scored a goal at Euro 2012 and as Italy's oldest (by five years) and most experienced striker, it might need him to do even more in Brazil.
安东尼奥·卡萨诺(Antonio Cassano),意大利
31岁的卡萨诺过去十年在意大利国家队起起落落,将在加入帕尔马经历了最好的赛季后第一次参加世界杯。而在此之前,他在2012年经历了一次中风,并接受心脏手术。
卡萨诺是瑞典球星伊布拉希莫维奇(Zlatan Ibrahimovic)缺席本届世界杯后,唯一有自己专属词汇的球星——卡萨纳塔(Cassanata)!这个词汇来自于前罗马俱乐部主师,现俄罗斯国家队主教练法比奥·卡佩罗(Fabio Capello)。他用委婉表达卡萨诺的暴脾气以及对社会期望的蔑视。卡萨诺还在自传中宣称自己在性生活后总是打出伟大的比赛。当卡萨诺在皇马时,他的一个侍者朋友常带3到4个羊角面包到他的酒店房间,在他完事儿以后(他自己估计有600到700个女人),他会送走床伴,安静享用自己的点心。
自从中风以后,卡萨诺老实了一些,因为当时他正在搅合那档子事。并且,为了世界杯,他甚至少吃了香草橄榄油面包来减重。2012欧洲杯,他只进了一球,作为意大利最年长和最富经验的前锋(比其他前锋大5岁),巴西世界杯上意大利需要他做得更多。
Mario Balotelli, Italy
Still just 23 years old, Balotelli has own history of Cassanatas, but he reached mythical status while playing for Manchester City. During that time, his undershirt messages and a constant stream of fantastical and bizarre tales about him in press that ranged from his friends setting his bathroom ablaze with fireworks (true) to driving around Manchester dressed as Santa Claus (false) coincided with his emergence as one of Europe's best young strikers.
He was a standout performer at Euro 2012, leading Italy to the final as one of the tournament's top scorers. Since then, he's moved to Milan, had a daughter and settled into a quieter personal life while continuing to score goals and combat vile racial abuse. But, aside from Suarez, no other player in the world elicits stronger emotions from all other human beings simply through his natural existence than Balotelli. If he doesn't cause controversy himself, it gets invented around him. He is the package of Mentos in the World Cup's two-liter bottle of Coke (which happens to be a World Cup sponsor!).
马里奥·巴洛特利(Mario Balotlli),意大利
巴洛特利只有23岁,但也是个有故事多多的人了。他在效力曼城时期获得“巴神”称号。当时,他球衣内T恤上的字(为什么总是我),媒体时常报导关于他搞笑,离奇的故事,比如他的朋友在他浴室里放烟花导致火灾(是真事),在曼彻斯特穿成圣诞老人开车兜风(假的),但同时,他还是欧洲最好的年轻前锋之一。
他在2012欧洲杯上是个力挽狂澜的角色,作为杯赛射手前几名带领意大利进军决赛。之后他转会到AC米兰,有了一个女儿,过上了相对宁静的生活,也继续斩获进球,与可耻的种族歧视做斗争。然而,巴洛特利是苏亚雷斯以外最容易被激怒的球员,而且这仅仅因为他是巴洛特利。即使自己不惹起争议,问题也会萦绕在他身旁,巴神就像加入大力神杯里两升可口可乐(恰好是世界杯赞助商)的一包曼妥思!