【英语生活】G20峰会魅力难敌世界杯

TORONTO-For some world leaders here to hash out fiscal policy and banking regulation, one topic seemed to dominate the agenda: where to watch the World Cup and how to squeeze it in without offending fellow leaders.

Ten of the 26 nations represented at the Group of Eight and Group of 20 meetings were still contenders in the Cup hosted by South Africa as talks kicked off. But the meetings were in Canada-a country whose men's team had qualified only once, nearly a quarter of a century ago, and then lost every match and failed to score a single goal.

Whenever they could, officials and leaders-from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.K. leader David Cameron to President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak-tried to catch matches, scrambling to figure out where to watch the games.

Soccer small talk began before serious discussions did.

On Friday, ahead of the G-8 summit in a resort north of Toronto, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and German Chancellor Merkel congratulated each other on their teams' performances.

Mr. Kan's team, ranked 45th going into the tournament, had just knocked out the higher-ranked Denmark. He said he hoped now Japan and Germany (ranked sixth) would meet in the final, according to an official at their meeting.

A more restrained Ms. Merkel noted that the German team had some tough opponents lined up.

Mr. Cameron commiserated with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over their teams' disappointing showings. With Italy out, Mr. Berlusconi told Mr. Cameron he would switch his allegiance to England, whose manager is Italian Fabio Capello.

Mr. Cameron, at his first major international conference, claimed an early diplomatic success: 'I have notched up one supporter,' he said.

Saturday hadn't gone well for South Korea's Mr. Lee, whose country, a G-20 member, had crashed out to nonmember Uruguay. At the conference media center, a group of South Korean reporters had gathered excitedly around TV sets, only to return despondently to their desks after Uruguay's win-clinching second goal.

On Sunday morning, attention turned to the England-Germany game. In four World Cup meetings, England had lost to Germany three times. Sunday,The chatter of keyboards from the deadline-pressed British press corps was interrupted by a large groan as the German team took the lead.

Across town, Mr. Cameron stood up to speak at the leaders' working meeting, knowing England was now down 1-0, a British official said. By the time he sat down, Ms. Merkel told him his team was behind by two goals.

The German leader conceded that a second England goal that had hit the crossbar and appeared to land behind goal line should have counted.

Mr. Cameron and Ms. Merkel left their fellow leaders and joined staffers watching the second half of the match, where Germany scored another two goals against England, winning the game 4-1.

'I'm still shaking,' Ms. Merkel told reporters soon after. 'More of the same!'

The final match during the G-20 was between members Argentina and Mexico. But how do you excuse yourself from the concluding summit meeting? Instead, Mexican President Felipe Calderón took updates on his BlackBerry, a Mexican official said. It wasn't good news-his side was losing.

-By Alistair MacDonald and Elizabeth Williamson

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Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

对于一些到多伦多讨论财政政策及银行监管的国家领导人而言，似乎有一个主题贯穿始终：在哪里观看世界杯的比赛以及如何在不冒犯其他领导人在情况下抽出时间看球。

此次出席八国集团(G8)及20国集团(G20)峰会的26个国家中，有10个国家的足球队正在南非世界杯的赛场上拼杀。但峰会的主办国──加拿大的男子足球队仅在二十多年前取得过一次参赛资格，却输掉了每场比赛且未进一球。

从德国总理默克尔(Angela Merkel)、英国首相卡梅伦(David Cameron)到美国总统奥巴马(Barack Obama)和韩国总统李明博(Lee Myung-bak)，这些领导人和相关官员们总是想尽办法找地方看比赛。

在正式讨论之前会先小聊几句足球。

周五，G8峰会在多伦多北部度假胜地召开前，日本首相菅直人(Naoto Kan)和德国总理默克尔相互祝贺双方球队所取得的成绩。

排名第45的日本队刚刚打败了排名更靠前的丹麦队。据参与官员说，菅直人说现在希望日本队和（排名第六的）德国队能在决赛中相遇。

默克尔则更为谨慎，她指出德国队还将遇到一些强硬的对手。

由于英国队和意大利队的表现令人失望，卡梅伦和意大利总理贝卢斯科尼(Silvio Berlusconi)互表同情。由于意大利已经出局，贝卢斯科尼告诉卡梅伦他将支持英格兰队。英格兰队的主教练卡佩罗(Fabio Capello)是意大利人。

第一次出席重大国际会议的卡梅伦宣布在外交上获得了初步的成功。他说，我得到了一位支持者。

对韩国总统李明博而言，周六并不太顺利。韩国队被乌拉圭队淘汰出局。在峰会媒体中心，一群韩国记者曾兴奋地聚在电机机前，在乌拉圭队踢进了决定胜负的第二球之后，他们才失望地回到自己的座位前。

周日早上，人们又开始关注英格兰队和德国队的比赛。两队在世界杯赛场上四次相遇，其中英格兰队输了三次。周日，德国队领先时，承受着截稿压力的英国新闻军团也放下手中的稿件，大声叹息。

英国官员说，正在领导人工作会议上演讲的卡梅伦当时知道英格兰队以1-0落后。当他讲完话坐下时，默克尔告诉他英格兰队落后两个球。

这名德国领导人承认英格兰队进的第二个球应当算数。这个打在横梁上的球显然落在了球门之内。

卡梅伦和默克尔离开了其他领导人，与手下一同观看下半场比赛。结果德国队又进两球，以4-1大胜英格兰队。

不久后，默克尔对记者说，我还在发抖，大家都一样。

G20峰会期间的最后一场比赛是阿根廷队对墨西哥队。这两个国家均是G20成员国。但怎样从峰会闭幕式上脱身呢？墨西哥官员说，墨西哥总统卡尔德隆(Felipe Calderon)在黑莓手机上查看最新消息。但他看到的不是好消息，墨西哥队输了。