ANCHOR: First this week, they waited for Beckham, they got Beckham and now they’ve lost him temporarily. After the delay to his start of his LA Galaxy career because of an ankle injury, the former England captain tore is knee ligament in a super league match this week and now he’s out for another six weeks. Now, that’s obviously bad news for Beckham, who will miss at least two vital England-European qualifying games. But equally bad news for major league soccer, dealing with increasing discontent from fans and the media over their multi-million dollar acquisition. We’ll get the latest from our North American football reporter, Sean Wellick in a moment. After we listened again to part of an interview from April this year, when Sean spoke to Rob Thompson of the Kansas City Wizards about Beckham’s imminent arrival.

安柯：这一周，球迷们在等待贝克汉姆，他们终于看到贝克汉姆上场了，而现在他们又要暂时失去贝克汉姆了。由于脚踝受伤，贝克汉姆在加盟洛杉矶银河队很久之后才得以上场。在本周的北美超级联赛上，这位前英格兰国家足球队队长的膝盖韧带又被拉伤，现在他不得不再次休战六周。对贝克汉姆来说，目前很明显的坏消息是，他将错过至少两场重要的英格兰队在欧锦赛资格赛的比赛。但是对美国职业足球大联盟而言，同样糟糕的是球迷们以及媒体对他们花几百万收购一位球星的决策表现出越来越不满的情绪。我们稍后将为您连线北美足球记者——肖恩•威力克，让他为我们报导最新消息。现在让我们再来听一下今年四月份的一个采访片断，当时肖恩正在就贝克汉姆即将转会美国之事，采访肯萨斯巫师足球队的罗布•汤普森。



SEAN WELLICK: If someone said, you are getting six or seven thousand you are projecting 40,000, just because of David Beckham. You think he is going to account to 33-34,000 extra tickets sold.

肖恩•威力克：如果有人让你弄六七千张票，你就要预定四万张，原因就在于贝克汉姆。你相信他能够让多出来的33，000～34，000张票全部售空。



ROB THOMPSON: We do, you know, you are taking the fact that he is a world class player, a different type of player that the league’s every seen. But also into the very mainstream, pop culture, which is going to draw a whole different sort group of people.

罗布•汤普森：是的，你说的是事实，他是一位世界级的顶尖球员，是大联盟见过的最与众不同的球员。但他的这种特殊也非常符合当今主流和通俗文化，他一定会吸引一系列不同群体的人们。



SEAN WELLICK: Have you thought of a contingency plan if Beckham is out through injury or if Frank Yallop just decides to give him that night off?

肖恩•威力克：你有没有想过贝克汉姆可能会因伤退出比赛，或者弗朗克•雅洛普就不准备让他那天晚上上场？



ROB THOMPSON: Uh, I think the league is programmed on everyone’s speed dial on their cell phones to have David’s control with stuff like this. Hopefully, let’s not even cross that bridge right now.

罗布•汤普森：嗯，我想现在几乎每个人都在他们的手机上设置快捷拨号给大联盟打电话，希望大联盟能让大卫•贝克汉姆来控制局面。我们暂时还是不要泼冷水了。



SEAN WELLICK: Alan, those hopes and fears expressed by Rob Thompson of Kansas City Wizards; I think that’s prevalent throughout major league soccer. Since David Beckham arrived to the American First Division there has indeed been a massive attendance increase throughout the league. This is best exemplified by the crowd of 66,000 at Giant Stadium for Los Angeles Galaxy’s match with native New York Red Bulls. Normally the New York Red Bulls average for their home matches, 11,500 spectators. LA Galaxy, are on their way to Salt Lake City on Wednesday September 19. I asked Trey Fitzgerald, senior director of marketing for our Real Salt Lake how much of their club’s marketing for that match has been about Beckham.

肖恩•威力克：艾伦，以上是来自肯萨斯巫师足球队的罗布•汤普森对贝克汉姆到来的希望和忧虑；我想这也是目前大联盟的普遍忧虑。自从大卫•贝克汉姆来到美国甲级联赛，整个大联盟比赛的观众人数就迅速增加了。最好的实例就是洛杉矶银河队客场挑战纽约红牛队的比赛，当地的大体育馆观众人数达到六万六千。而平常纽约红牛队的国内联赛观众平均起来只有一万一千五百。洛杉矶银河队将在本周三，出发到盐湖城参加九月十九号的比赛。对此我采访了负责皇家盐湖城队比赛的市场推广部高级主管——特瑞•菲茨杰拉德，让他来告诉我们此次大联盟俱乐部为该比赛的宣传推广有多少是关于贝克汉姆的。



TREY FITZGERALD: Well, we are in a bit of a unique situation, in that, Mr. Beckham was here last August with Real Madrid, so we had bid this year’s visit of the LA galaxy on September 19th as the return of David Beckham to Salt Lake City and Utah. We had a 45,000 capacity crowd last August 12th with Real Madrid and Salt Lake during an exhibition and we were hoping to build on that momentum and bring people back to the stadium once again. If, Mr. Beckham had been healthy and we hadn’t hit this speed bump in the road I think we would have been looking at between 35 and 40,000 for his visit on Sunday, September 19th.

特瑞•菲茨杰拉德：嗯，我们现在遇到的情况很特殊。贝克汉姆先生去年八月和皇家马德里队一起来到这里，所以我们以大卫•贝克汉姆回访盐湖城和犹他州为名争取到这一次九月十九号银河队的来访。在去年八月十二日皇家马德里和盐湖城的见面会上我们的观众容量达到四万五千人，我们希望保持这种势头，把人们再次吸引到体育馆来看比赛。如果贝克汉姆先生身体没问题，我们没有撞上这个“限速坎”的话，我想我们可以在星期天吸引到三万五千到四万的观众。



SEAN WELLICK: So, Trey, let’s say that David Beckham never came to LA Galaxy, never came to major league soccer, this is a mid-week match in September, On Wednesday night home to Los Angeles Galaxy, what type of attendance would you expect?



肖恩•威力克：特瑞，让我们假设大卫•贝克汉姆没有加入洛杉矶银河队，没有参加美国大联盟，那么这个星期三晚上你们主场对阵洛杉矶银河队的比赛，你预计会有多少观众捧场呢？



TREY FITZGERALD: Traditionally on an average Wednesday night game, we are looking at about, 14,000. Perhaps we’d see a little bump in that if we pack in a back to school special or some other media partner promotion for that night. But about 14,000 is our traditional mid-week average.

特瑞•菲茨杰拉德：传统情况下，周三晚上的比赛我们一般预计观众人数是一万四千。如果我们举办校际比赛特场或其他媒体合作宣传，实际观众人数可能略有升高。但是一般情况下，周三比赛的观众人数为一万四千。



SEAN WELLICK: That’s Trey Fitzgerald, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications for Major League Soccer Club, in Salt Lake. Alan?

肖恩•威力克：刚才是大联盟俱乐部市场交流部高级主管，特瑞•菲茨杰拉德在盐湖城接受我们的访问。艾伦？



ALAN: So Sean, who is exactly in charge here? Frank Yallop the Galaxy manager said he wasn’t going to allow Beckham to play against Chelsea, and then he did so because Beckham insisted according to Yallop. Now Beckham’s injured.



艾伦：肖恩，现在到底谁说了算？弗朗克•雅洛普，银河队主教练，说他原本不允许贝克汉姆参加银河队对阵切尔西的比赛，但他还是参加了。据雅洛普说，是贝克汉姆坚持要参加的。而现在他却因此受伤了。



SEAN WELLICK: Alan that’s a wonderful question because is it Frank Yallop the Club Manager for LA Galaxy or is it the Club President, the former US International Alexi Lalas? Could it be Anschutz Entertainment Group, the parent company that owns Los Angeles Galaxy? Perhaps someone in Major League Soccer or is it David Beckham, himself? I can tell you there were two US Internationals involved in the match after England-Germany, Jonathan Bornstein who plays for Chivas USA and Landon Donovan who plays for Los Angeles Galaxy. US had played Sweden in Sweden on that Wednesday yet neither, both of them are considerable younger than David Beckham were in the starting 11. It’s certainly a source of consternation as well as wide spread speculation in Major League Soccer. I can tell you that Frank Yallop is regarded as perhaps the finest manager in Major League Soccer and he’s someone who played in the premiership, he was manager of Canada, he is not weak willed. But you really have to question the judgment of playing 90 minutes four hours after he gets off a plane flying London to Los Angeles.

肖恩•威力克：艾伦，你这个问题问得很好。现在在贝克汉姆能否出场问题上做主的是主教练弗朗克•雅洛普？还是俱乐部主席，前美国国际球员亚历克斯•拉拉斯？是洛杉矶银河队的所有者，安舒茨娱乐集团？还是大联盟的其他人？或者说是贝克汉姆自己？在这场银河队对芝华市的比赛之前，贝克汉姆刚刚参加完英格兰对德国队的比赛。而这场比赛还有另外两名国际球员，一位是为美国芝华市队效力的乔纳森•博恩斯丁，另一位是洛杉矶银河队的兰顿•多诺万。美国队周三在瑞典有一场客场对瑞典队的比赛。他们两个都比贝克汉姆年青很多，最小的比贝克汉姆小11岁。这对于大联盟来说，当然是一件震惊而且广泛受关注的事情。可以说，弗朗克•雅洛普被看作是大联盟中最出色的教练，他曾参加过足球超级联赛，曾经当过加拿大国家队主教练，不是随随便便就能打垮的。但是在贝克汉姆刚从伦敦飞到洛杉矶，下飞机还不到四小时就让他打满九十分钟，这让人不得不置疑他的判断力。



ALAN: Ultimately Sean, is it Yallop and Lalas who are going to pay the price for this?

艾伦：肖恩，那么从根本上说，你觉得到底是雅洛普，还是拉拉斯应该对这场失败负责？



SEAN WELLICK: You have to wonder because now Los Angeles Galaxy are bottom of the table in Major League Soccer. David Beckham was meant to be the footballer that not only sold thousands and thousands of tickets and millions and millions of dollars in advertisement revenue in Major League Soccer, but he was going to come into the center of the midfield which is where Manager Frank Yallop wants to play David Beckham. And he was going to get Los Angeles Galaxy into the playoffs zone to compete for Major League Soccer Cup 2007. Right now Los Angeles Galaxy far out of the play off zone. It looks like they won’t reach the post-season and that would be a serious disappointment, dare I say, even a disaster for Major League Soccer. It could also greatly impact in a negative way, the careers at least short term of Galaxy for Manager Frank Yallop and President Alexi Lalas.

肖恩•威力克：这个问题现在还回答不了，因为洛杉矶银河队现在已经落入大联盟排行榜的最底层。大卫•贝克汉姆应该首先是一个足球运动员，而不仅仅是用来卖出成千上万的门票和上百万元广告投资的赚钱工具。不过他马上就会投身绿荫场上，正如弗朗克•雅洛普期待的那样。他希望借助贝克汉姆让洛杉矶银河队打入2007年美国大联盟杯决赛，并争取最后的冠军。但现在看来他们似乎没办法打到季后赛，这样一来他们就会面临观众严重的失望，我敢说，这对整个大联盟都将是一场灾难。与此同时，银河队主教练朗克•雅洛普和主席亚历克斯•拉拉斯的职业生涯也会在短期内受到巨大的负面影响。



ALAN: Thanks very much Sean, we will be back with you later in the program for some news on the US Women’s League.

艾伦：肖恩，非常感谢你为我们带来的精彩报导。我们会在稍后的节目中继续连线你，希望能听到一些关于美国女足大联盟的新消息。