世界盃的比賽日恰好與歐盟在布魯塞爾舉行的半年首腦峰會撞車，本屆世界盃32支參賽球隊中來自歐盟的球隊有10支，這些國家的元首們也難以抵擋住世界盃的魅力。英國首相布萊爾在開會前匆匆觀看了英格蘭同特立尼達和多巴哥隊前10分鐘的比賽，會議結束之後又趕回來看了最後35分鐘的比賽。瑞典首相也稱瑞典于巴拉圭比賽時，正在用餐的他難以集中精力。先前更有德國和西班牙的領導人為看關鍵球賽而“翹會”。歐洲熱鬧，白宮也不閒著，那裏的電視頻道都在播放世界盃，總統布什也在關注足球，在美國同捷克的比賽前，他一直在鼓勵自己的球隊，這個球迷眼中的“足球沙漠”看來也難以抵擋足球巨大的魅力。

　　鏈結：http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=ap-wcupnotebook&prov=ap&type=lgns

　　原文：

　　World Cup a hit at the White House

　　The White House and European leaders are preoccupied with a very grave matter these days.

　　What's going on at the World Cup?

　　ADVERTISEMENT

　　Televisions at the White House have been tuned to the World Cup, while the British and Swedish prime ministers tried to catch glimpses of the games during a European Union summit Thursday in Brussels, Belgium. Of the 32 World Cup teams, 10 are from EU nations.

　　"The president follows sports," White House press secretary Tony Snow said. "And obviously, soccer's more popular in other countries than it is in the United States. But it's got a pretty good constituency."

　　Bush called the U.S. team on Monday to wish it luck before its first game against the Czech Republic. Even though the United States got shut out in that game, Snow rejected the notion they were out of contention before Saturday's matchup with Italy.

　　"Here, wait a minute. Ill-fated American team?" Snow said in a response to a reporter who used the phrase. "They've got a big match against Italy coming up. Come on.

　　"It ain't over 'til it's over," he said.

　　British Prime Minister Tony Blair watched the last 10 minutes of England's first half against Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday in a private room before briefly joining the summit's opening session. His official spokesman said the prime minister left the session for the final 35 minutes of the game, which England won 2-0 to advance to the second round.

　　Sweden's Goran Persson acknowledged it would be a struggle to concentrate on Thursday's working dinner, which clashed with Sweden's game against Paraguay. Persson planned to keep up with the action.

　　"Who said that I will attend the dinner?" Persson said coyly, before adding he would dine with the other leaders, but keep tabs on the game through mobile phone text messages. Sweden beat Paraguay 1-0.

　　The EU's midyear summits traditionally clash with the World Cup or soccer's European Championship, prompting leaders to slip away from meetings in search of a television screen. Spanish and German leaders have previously skipped summit sessions to follow crucial games. A 2002 summit in Seville, Spain, was delayed for an hour to allow diplomats to watch Spain lose to South Korea in the World Cup.

　　In 1992, Denmark's then-foreign minister, Uffe Elleman-Jensen, wore a hat and scarf in his country's red-and-white colors to a summit in Lisbon, Portugal, to celebrate Denmark's 2-0 victory over Germany in the European Championship final.

　　STREET PARTY: The Tricolors gave Ecuador a reason to party.

　　Ecuador erupted in massive street celebrations Thursday after its team beat Costa Rica to advance to the second round of the World Cup for the first time. President Alfredo Palacio called to congratulate the team, saying there would be "popular celebrations with bands" in Quito, Guayaquil and El Chota.

　　"Dear players, distinguished Ecuadoreans... on behalf of our country, we're here united and proud, willing to follow your example," Palacio said. "It's an enormous achievement that unites us all."

　　In Quito, Ecuador's capital, the streets filled with yellow, blue and red flags after the team's 3-0 victory over Costa Rica in Hamburg. Fans formed honking car caravans.

　　"Germany, here we come!" shouted Romel Andrade, who watched the game in a restaurant in northern Quito.

　　Ecuador plays Germany on Tuesday with a chance to claim first place in Group A.

　　"Let it come, let it come, let Germany come!" said another group of raucous fans in Guayaquil, the country's second-biggest city.

　　Although the government did not declare an official holiday as it did after Ecuador's 2-0 victory over Poland last week, every activity stopped after the match began at 8 a.m. local time. Stores opened late, and people gathered to watch the game on big-screen televisions in plazas, restaurants, cafes and workplaces.

　　SCARY SITES: Ronaldinho can put quite a scare in opponents. Fans, too, it seems.

　　The Brazilian's Web site is among the most likely to lead viewers to unsafe screensaver sites, including adware, spyware and malicious downloads, according to a survey by McAfee, Inc. David Beckham and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo also pose significant risk among player sites, while Angola is the most dangerous team Web site.

　　"Soccer fans are famous for the depth of their feelings for player, club and country, but sadly, the vendors of spyware, adware and other unwanted software know how to exploit fans passions for financial gain," said Chris Dixon, director of strategy for McAfee SiteAdvisor. "This survey shows yet again that the problem of Web security has truly gone global."

　　McAfee SiteAdvisor searched Google for each of the 736 World Cup players, adding the phrase "World Cup Screensaver." It then cross-checked the results with its own database of spyware and spam safety test results for more than 3.8 million of the Web's most popular sites. The "winners" were searches resulting in the highest percentage of risky Web site.

　　Angolan goalkeeper Lama's Web site was the most dangerous among players, with visitors having a 45 percent chance of landing at an unsafe site. Fans visiting Ronaldinho and Beckham's sites had as much as a 30 percent chance of being taken to dangerous sites.

　　Among teams, Angola topped Brazil 24 percent to 17 percent, followed by Portugal, Argentina and the United States.

　　SECRET GHANA: Ratomir Dujkovic wants his players' full attention.

　　The Ghana coach closed practice Thursday at the team's training site in Wuerzburg in southern Germany. When fans and reporters gathered outside the gates for a peak of the Black Stars, the team bus and van blocked the view.

　　An elderly Ghanian man, equipped with cow bells and a cassette recording of beating drums, was allowed to stay in the stadium. But a group of Turkish-speaking Germans who drove from Stuttgart to see Fenerbahce star Stephen Appiah arrived too late.

　　Ghana faces the Czech Republic in a Group E game Saturday. It lost to Italy 2-0 on Monday.

　　作者-于歡-北京第二外國語學院-英語系

責編：佟杉杉