 If you’re undecided on a World Cupteam to root for, pick Iceland 如果你还没有决定在世界杯上支持谁的话，那么选择冰岛队吧 root for：支持，赞助 If your country did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup (hi America!) and you have room in your heart for another national soccer team, you should root for Iceland. 如果你的国家没有资格参加2018世界杯（嗨美国！），你还有心为另一个国家的足球队加油助威的话，那你应该选择支持冰岛队。 At first glance, it might seem boneheaded. Iceland’s odds to win the trophy are 250 to one. The country has no professional soccer clubs. Russia 2018 is the team’s first ever World Cup appearance and it is, by far, the smallest team to ever qualify for the World Cup. It also has to play against Croatia, Nigeria and Argentina—all far more experienced at the World Cup. 乍一看，这似乎是愚蠢的。冰岛的夺冠赔率是250比1。这个国家还没有职业足球俱乐部。俄罗斯2018是这只球队的第一次亮相世界杯，这是迄今为止，曾晋级世界杯最小的团队。它还将对阵克罗地亚，尼日利亚和阿根廷，他们都在世界杯上更有经验。 boneheaded：笨头笨脑的 But Iceland makes up for what it lacks in prestigious soccer heritage with a great underdog story of improbable success: 但是冰岛弥补了它在著名足球遗产中从未见过的、一个不太可能的、成功的故事。 underdog story：失败者故事 improbable：[ɪmˈprɑ:bəbl] adj.不大可能是真实的，不大可能的;未必确实的;未必会发生的;非概然 A game plan for success 一个指向成功的策略 How did it achieve this? Despite being a soccer-mad country with 10% of men and 4.4% of women playing—the second highest rate in Europe, Iceland has faced major obstacles. 它是怎样实现的呢？尽管是一个热爱足球的国家 – 其中有10%男性和4.4%的女性都在踢足球 – 是欧洲参加这项运动比例第二高的国家，冰岛却面临着重大的问题。 The first problem for the tiny nation of only 330,000 was the size of its soccer talent pool. Being an isolated European island doesn’t help, making Iceland unlikely to benefit from a talented migrant population, as some national soccer teams have. But Iceland has focused on solving its problems by making the most of what (and who) it has. In the early 2000s, the Football Association of Iceland (KSÍ) began investing in making it cheaper and easier for anyone interested to take coaching courses and licenses by UEFA, Europe’s soccer governing body. 这个仅有330000人口的小国的首要问题是足球人才库的规模。作为一个孤立的欧洲岛屿，使得冰岛无法像其他一些国家足球队可以从移民群中受益。但是冰岛却集中精力，充分利用它的所有来解决问题。在2000年初，冰岛足球协会（KS）开始投资，让任何成为教练和获得欧洲足联执照的资格的课程变得更便宜、和容易。 Iceland now has over 600 qualified coaches. Put another way, Iceland has one qualified coach per 550 people. (In comparison, England has one per 11,000.) More than half of its coaches hold UEFA B licenses—the minimum requirement to coach players older than 10 in Iceland. It’s a far cry from 2003, when no Icelandic coach had completed their UEFA B license. Now, pretty much all of Iceland’s soccer talent is trained and developed by expert coaches. 冰岛现在有超过600名合格的教练。换句话说，冰岛每550人就有一名合格教练。（相比之下，英国每11000人中才有1人。）超过一半的教练持有欧洲联盟的B许可证，这是对执教年龄在10岁以上球员的冰岛教练的最低要求。而在2003年，冰岛没有一个教练持有欧足联B许可证，现在与当时以不可同日而语了。现在，几乎所有冰岛的足球运动员都是由专家教练训练出来的。 Additionally, over the past 15 years, KSÍ has invested in building over150 miniature indoor pitches across the country. The indoor pitches, with under-soil heating, are crucial because Iceland’s tough weather conditions and long winters mean playing outdoor soccer is difficult for much of the year. And most of these indoor pitches were built next to schools, making it easier for kids to practice. 另外，在过去的15年里，KSI投资了全国150多个小型室内球场。这些室内球场，都有地暖，是对冰岛来说是至关重要的，因为冰岛恶劣的天气条件和漫长的冬季意味着一年中绝大部分时间里在户外踢足球是很困难的。这些室内球场大部分建在学校旁边，让孩子们更容易练习。 pitch：（体育比赛的）场地；球场 Iceland’s nurturing of young talent is paying off. Since 2010, a generation of “indoor kids” have shot the country into the soccer limelight. Iceland qualified for the 2011 European under-21 championship—its first ever international soccer competition, and narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 2014 World Cup after a playoffs defeat. It qualified for the 2016 European championship and famously beat former world champions England to reach the quarter-finals. Now, with eight members of the 2011 under-21 team in the squad, Iceland will play in its first ever World Cup. 冰岛对年轻人才的培养正在取得成效。自2010年以来，一代“室内儿童”已经把这个国家带入了世界的足球中心。冰岛队获得了2011年欧洲21岁以下锦标赛的冠军，这是有史以来第一次参加国际足球比赛，在季后赛败北后险些错过2014届世界杯资格赛。它在2016欧洲杯进入八强，并出人意料的击败了前世界冠军英国，使其止步四分之一决赛。现在，这只拥有着2011年球队中21岁以下的八名球员的冰岛队，将第一次杀入世界杯的赛场。 limelight：公众注意的中心 If you’re not yet sold, three more charming facts about Icelandic soccer 如果你还没有被说服的话，冰岛足球的三个迷人的事实：
Viking：[ˈvaɪkɪŋ] n. 海盗，北欧海盗，<口>斯堪的纳维亚人
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