2004年四月九日在休息室裡的十五分鐘

看板Arsenal作者wadissimo (49 and counting...)時間20年前 (2004/10/22 09:47)推噓2(2推 0噓 0→)

留言2則, 2人參與討論串1/1

http://football.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9753,1332990,00.html 從沮喪到不朽：兵工廠如何成為不X之師 From broken men to immortals: how Arsenal became invincible 皮里斯講到上季他記憶深刻的一段，就是上季在海布里對利物浦那一場。超感人的 ~Q_Q~ 我只挑幾段講.. With his side travelling to Old Trafford on Sunday on the verge of reaching the milestone of 50 league games unbeaten, Robert Pires recalls the key moments en route to an extraordinary period Friday October 22, 2004 The Guardian Fifteen minutes of self-doubt. That's how long nerves gripped the Arsenal team during our unbeaten 2003-04 season. And all of those worries were crammed into the half-time break of our home game with Liverpool last Easter. Good Friday: Liverpool are 2-1 up at Highbury. Sami Hyypia put them ahead and Thierry Henry scored a brilliant equaliser, only to see it wiped out by Michael Owen on the stroke of the interval. We were still top of the Premiership but Chelsea were closing in fast, just four points behind. Given that they'd knocked us out of the Champions League in midweek, it looked as though the momentum was shifting from north to west London. 復活節前的星期五，利物浦二比一領先主隊，Hyypia先進球然後亨利追平，結果歐文在剩下五分鐘時又進一球。那時契爾西在積分榜後面緊緊的追趕，槍手當時只領先四個積分，特別是不久前槍手才在歐冠八強裡書給藍軍，現在的局勢看起來似乎整個氣勢快要從北倫敦移到西倫敦。 For the first time we appeared to be struggling with anxiety: fear was stifling our play. Everyone there was thinking the same thing: "Have they lost their bottle? Are they really going to throw the title away again?" Those were the questions I was asking myself as we trudged off the pitch at half-time. 這是我們首次真正與焦慮掙扎：恐懼正在窒息著我們。每個人都在想，他們是不是完了？是不是又跟上季一樣把到手的獎盃丟掉？這些問題，當我在場上對利物浦一切不順時，我也這樣問著自己。 What had happened a few days earlier in Europe was preying on our minds. Chelsea had come to our place as underdogs, the 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge seemingly setting us up for a place in the semi-finals. But we lost 2-1 and a competition we'd dreamed of winning had been snatched away. A few days before that, Manchester United had knocked us out of the FA Cup in the semi-final. （省略，講的是歐冠與FA CUP接連失利的事） So there was a horrible sense of deja vu. Liverpool were threatening to inflict our first league defeat of the season, albeit in our 31st match, and Chelsea were closing in. A week earlier we'd been on course to achieve the Treble; now our season was unravelling before our eyes. 這一切都是這麼讓人害怕的似曾相識，利物浦正在威脅著我們，正當這是我們尋求第三十一場不X時，想辦法擺脫契爾西的追趕時，我們快書了。一個星期前我們還在三冠的道路上齊進，今天我們本季的命運就要揭曉了。 In the changing room we slumped down on the wooden benches. You're surrounded by memories of a glorious past at Highbury, but it hits you more in the dressing rooms than anywhere else. That's where the history of this club lives on. There we were, disconsolate, broken men in need of guidance, waiting for Arsene Wenger to speak. But nothing happened. Not a word. Arsene, our manager and inspiration, kept schtum. 在更衣室裡，我們跌坐在木板的椅子上，我們四周被海布里過去的光榮圍繞著（我猜是照片），這些原本是這俱樂部存繫的基礎，但是現在它們卻讓我們心裡更加刺痛，我們就像一群垂頭喪氣的人，渴求著指引，渴求著阿森。溫格開口告訴我們怎麼做。但是，什麼是都沒發生，我們的經理Arsene一個字都沒說。 A few of us started looking at one another quizzically. Why was Wenger - one of the best tacticians in the modern game, one of the most respected managers in the world, a coach whom I admire so much for having breathed new life into my career just as he had so many others' - saying nothing? Was he lost for words? Was he in a state of shock? Had this Liverpool side beaten him as well? 我們之中幾個人開始摸不著頭腦地彼此交看，心想為何像溫格這樣棒的戰略專家，一個世上最尊敬的經理人之一，一個我這麼崇拜且讓我的（還有其他球員的）職業生命重新出發的恩師，現在居然講不出話？是他也慌了嗎？是不是利物浦也擊敗了他？ Not a chance. Arsene speaks only when he has to and, in that dressing room, he didn't have to say a thing. We knew, deep down, what was going wrong, and we knew how to put things right. He didn't have to show us how. Arsene knows he can make more of an impact sometimes without saying anything. It can be better than kicking and screaming, or tearing into us. You're forced to look at yourself and draw your own conclusions. You have to take responsibility yourself. That's what happened that Friday afternoon. We players, so used to being pampered and praised, pulled ourselves together. 不可能，溫格只在他必須要說話時說話，在那間休息室，他甚麼話都不用說。其實在我們內心裡，都知道哪裡出錯，該如何把事情作對。溫格知道他可以用什麼都不講的方式在我們的心理達到作用。當然他可以對我們又吼又罵又踢，但是他沒這樣做，他逼的你必須仔細檢視自己，自己去思考，自己去下結論，自己為自己的表現負責。那就是在那個星期五下午所發生的事，我們這些平常被稱讚慣了被寵壞的球員們，開始團結起來。 We began talking among ourselves, as if we were any old pub team regrouping at half-time down the local park. I hardly said a thing, but I listened. It wasn't exactly a structured dialogue - everybody was talking over everybody else - until the most influential figure in the team made his presence felt. Patrick Vieira, our captain, picked his moment to speak. When he did, everybody listened. 我們球員間開始彼此交談，彷彿我們就像是平常的PUB隊伍，在中場時間時在公園裡大家交換意見起來，我沒說什麼，但是我一直在傾聽，這些對話並不是很有條理頭緒，大家彼此都在交換意見，直到我們最有影響力的隊長開口了，當他出聲時，大家都靜靜聽著.... Patrick hardly ever seems to raise his voice but, that afternoon, he was like a man possessed. His face was contorted, there was fire burning in his eyes, as if he was about to go into battle. Patrick沒有提高音量話，但是他的神情與燃火眼神，彷彿他就要上戰場了。 "Lads, it's time to snap out of it!" he screamed. "We haven't come all this way and worked so hard just to chuck it all away at the death. It's not going to happen again. There's no chance of that." "各位，現在是我們爆發的時候了！"他叫著"我們不會奮鬥了這麼久，然後在這裡把所有努力都放棄掉。這絕對不會發生！絕不！" （抱歉，這段我不知道怎麼翻 >"<） I didn't need to look around the room to see whether those words had got through to my team-mates. It was obvious. From that moment on, nothing and no one was going to stand in the way of us winning that Premiership title. 那時，我根本不必去看在休息室裡其他隊友是不是有把這些話聽進去。一切都很明顯。從那時起，沒有任何東西！沒有任何人可以阻擋我們贏得英超冠軍。 We were irrepressible when we got back on the pitch. Liverpool were swept away. I equalised almost immediately, and later Thierry completed his hat-trick - a stunning goal at the end of a weaving run which left Dietmar Hamann and Jamie Carragher on their backsides and broke Liverpool's spirit for good. We'd won 4-2 and, at the final whistle, we knew the psychological damage we'd inflicted on our title challengers was irreparable. 當我們回到場上時，再也壓抑不住，利物浦被我們擊敗了。我進了扳平的的那球，而亨利也完成了他該場的帽子戲法，尤其其中一球從中場過了三個人直擣客隊的球門。當哨音響起時，我們知道我們不但贏了這場球，也給所有想挑戰我們的隊伍們心理上的傷害。 We huddled together in the centre-circle, interlocking arms, a team united. For me, that was the image of the season. A symbol of the spirit within the squad. We knew we'd be champions because, if we were capable of rousing ourselves to play that well when we'd been at our lowest ebb, we were not going to be beaten over the final few weeks of the season. That was something special. 賽後場上我們圍著一圈，手臂搭著手臂，一支團結的隊伍。對我來說，那是該季我最深刻的景象，一種團隊的精神。我們知道，如果我們可以在最低潮的時刻也可以這樣振奮而起，表現得這麼好，那在賽季最後的幾週裡，更不會把獎盃隨便讓人。那一刻真是特別。 United stranglehold Last season was historic for Arsenal, a year in which we established our superiority in the Premiership beyond any doubt. At the beginning of the season no one reckoned we stood a chance of winning the title, given the way United had come back at us the previous year. It was the memory of that capitulation the previous spring, rather than Roman Abramovich's appearance on the scene, which haunted us. Every player at this club was intent upon exorcising those nightmarish memories. And so another critical moment was our goalless draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford back in September 2003, where we were spared defeat by Ruud van Nistelrooy missing a penalty in injury-time. The scenes at the end of that match were controversial and earned some of our players suspensions and fines from the Football Association, but we established a psychological stranglehold over United that day. You could say that the sanctions we endured after that game were almost worth it. It might have all been different had Ruud slotted that spot-kick home - but I'm not going to say I felt sorry for him. That's life. That's sport. It's like when people had accused me of being a diver during our draw with Portsmouth at Highbury the previous week. People attacked me over that, in the media and on the terraces, saying I'd fooled the referee into awarding us a penalty. Wrong. I was pushed, I fell over. End of story. But I took the criticism, gritted my teeth and got through it. That's what Ruud had to live with after missing that penalty, but you accept it and get on with it. Once we left Old Trafford unbeaten, the momentum was with us. But even after such a fantastic season, no one could comprehend what it was going to be like to reclaim the Premiership at White Hart Lane, of all places. We were annoyed not to win that game (from 2-0 up at half-time we drew 2-2) but it didn't matter. Chelsea had lost earlier in the day to Newcastle and couldn't catch us. At the home of our bitterest rivals, we celebrated as champions. The similarities to our triumph at Old Trafford two years earlier were uncanny . We seem to thrive in our rivals' backyards. In 2002 our 1-0 victory at United had won the league at our hosts' expense; this time we'd regained our title with four games still to play. We went to the corner where our fans were gathered. I had one thing on my mind - to celebrate the moment with them. Ashley Cole went and grabbed an imitation Premiership trophy from one of the supporters in the front row and we took turns to lift it to the crowd. It was a magic moment, and it was particularly special for me. Last time, in 2002, I'd watchedArsenal beat United on the telly - I was in the south of France, where I was undergoing rehab after my knee injury. This time I was there with my team-mates to enjoy the success. We went through those final few league games almost on autopilot, but we weren't beaten. Suddenly people were calling us "Invincibles"; we'd gone down in history and even Arsene spoke of "immortality". Though I wouldn't perhaps go that far, the parade we had through north London to celebrate our success impressed upon us what we had actually achieved. That's when it really sank in. It was a release after all the hard work - not just that season's but after the surgery, the months of rehab recovering from my knee ligament damage, then the bitter disappointment of the previous year. It was pure pleasure to be in front of Islington town hall, celebrating next to my captain Patrick. 看完了皮里斯的回憶，大家該集氣，準備下一場賽事... Who is next? Bring them on~~~ \_/ -- 'The difference between you and me is that if tomorrow there were no more money in football I'd still be here, but not you'. -- a quote of Wenger's saying to an agent -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 80.229.140.103 ※ 編輯: wadissimo 來自: 80.229.140.103 (10/22 10:01)