1. If you were to examine the birth certificates of every soccer player in 2006's World Cup tournament, you would most likely find a noteworthy quirk:elite soccer players are most likely to have been born in the earlier months of the year than in the later months.

【分析】复合句。if引导的条件句用了虚拟语气 (were);主句中冒号后的内容是对quirk的补充说明。
【译文】如果仔细查看一下2006年世界杯联赛每个足球运动员的出生证明，你很可能会发现一个值得注意的奇怪现象：出色的足球运动员大都在一年的头几个月出生而不是后几个月。

【点拨】certificate意为“证书；证明书；凭证”，birth certificate意为“出生证”。

2. If you then examined the European national youth teams that feed the World Cup and professional ranks, you would find this strange phenomenon to be even more pronounced.

【分析】多重复合句。逗号后的部分为主句，主句是一个"主+谓+宾+宾补"结构的句子。if引导条件状语从句，其中又包含that引导的定语从句修饰the European national youth teams。
【译文】如果再关注一下为世界杯和专业球队输送人才的欧洲国家青年队，你会发现这一奇佳现象更加明显。

【点拨】feed的基本含义“喂，饲养；靠···为生”，但在本句中则表示“为···培养，输送”。