The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup [Paperback]

Matt Weiland (Editor), Sean Wilsey (Editor), Franklin Foer (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2006

The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup features original pieces by thirty-two leading writers and journalists about the thirty-two nations that have qualified for the world's greatest sporting event. In addition to all the essential information any fan needs—the complete 2006 match schedule, results from past tournaments, facts and figures about the nations, players, teams, and referees—here are essays that shine a whole new light on soccer and the world.

• Former Foreign Minister of Mexico Jorge G. CastaÑeda invites George W. Bush to watch a game.

• Novelist Robert Coover remembers soccer in Spain after the death of General Francisco Franco.

• Dave Eggers on America, and the gym teachers who kept it free from communism.

• Time magazine's Tokyo bureau chief Jim Frederick shows how soccer is displacing baseball in Japan.

• Novelist Aleksandar Hemon proves, once and for all, that sex and soccer do not mix.

• Novelist John Lanchester describes the indescribable: the beauty of Brazilian soccer.

• The New Yorker's Cressida Leyshon on Trinidad and Tobago, 750-1 underdogs.

• Fever Pitch author Nick Hornby on the conflicting call of club and country.

Plus an afterword by Franklin Foer on the form of government most likely to win the World Cup.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Soccer's World Cup, unlike baseball's World Series, is truly global. And with soccer's fluidity and lack of set plays, it's easier to write about the context of the game than about the game itself. The editors, both Americans, gather essays for each of the 32 countries competing in the 2006 World Cup, providing an exceptional variety of discourse and digression on soccer as it relates to politics, culture, and personal life. Henning Mankell examines what it means to war-ravaged Angola simply to compete. Nick Hornby explores globalization as it relates to soccer in England. Sukhdev Sandhu writes about a fatwa forbidding the game "except when played as training for Jihad" in Saudi Arabia. Tim Parks (Italy), Jim Frederick (Japan), Robert Coover (Spain), and Dave Eggers (U.S.) also contribute standout essays. Despite a few missteps--essays that read as if soccer was added only in revision--this is a fine anthology, thought provoking and enjoyable, proving that we can learn vital things about societies through their attitudes toward sport. And there's no book like it about baseball. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“Librarians should purchase Crouch’s volume as a sound reference tool.” -- Library Journal

“each cup competition is detailed through listing all available statistics with highly readable narratives describing the matches.” -- Library Journal

Product Details

• Paperback: 399 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (May 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061132268
• ISBN-13: 978-0061132261
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Guide to World Cup Nations, May 28, 2006

By 

Stephen Leary (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup (Paperback)

This is really more of a guide to the nations competing in the 2006 World Cup, not the teams. The short essays are the main feature of the book. The essays try to explain soccer's importance in each country and give some insight into the national character of its people.

Basic statistics are provided for each country (population, religions, languages, etc.) taken from the CIA World Factbook. But a few soccer stats are here too: the tournament schedule, sites and stadia in Germany where the matches will be held, the names of the referees, and recent FIFA World Player of the Year winners.

If you're looking for in-depth stats on the World Cup, or the player rosters for each country and their strengths and weaknesses, or the odds on who's going to win, this isn't it. But if you just want the basics and to learn something about soccer and the people of each participating country, this gives a quick overview. The book is really about the essays, not the stats, and the writers are interesting to read. Dave Eggers wrote the United States section and has some funny things to say about flopping and Sly Stallone.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good reading for the most part, September 16, 2006

By 

C. Stephans - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup (Paperback)

This book includes a chapter on each team that qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The chapters are written by different authors, who have some affinity for the nation. It also includes an interesting introduction and plenty of appealing statistics.

Even after the World Cup, reading this book has been enjoyable and insightful. All but a few of the chapters are entertaining and interesting and some are excellent. There are also some that are quite tedious--these go on and on about topics unrelated to soccer and are uninteresting.

I really enjoyed the chapters on some of the underdogs like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Australia, South Korea and Angola, and of course the chapter on England stands out. The good chapters make the book worth reading, for sure.

The chapter on the US is disappointing as the writer concludes with a typical liberal swipe at Pres Bush and VP Cheney. The chapter reads like it was written in full between innings at a baseball game.

I will definitely look for a similar book in four years prior to watching all of the games of the World Cup.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reference and reading., May 14, 2006

By 

Michael (Charleston, SC, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup (Paperback)

I picked up this book and wasn't sure what to make of it at first. 32 different writers writing about the countries in the World Cup? But it all works. In addition to those essays that give you a glimpse into each country, there are statistics about not only the teams and the tournament, but about the various countries that are envolved. Very interesting to read the articles and then compare the size of the countries, the population, the incomes, and lots of other facts. What you end up with in this book is a good world picture. Congratulations to the people who put this one together!