Customer Reviews

The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

OK, here's an (approximate) scorecard for this book's chapters on 32 nations in the World Cup (some categories overlap so totals are more than 32):

Good essays that teach a LOT about soccer in a country .... 25.5
Examples: France, Brazil, Germany, Costa Rica
Meandering, non-soccer essays, still interesting for good writing ... 5
Example: Portugal
Cheap shots at the United States: 3 *
Example: Iran, United States
Meandering, non-soccer essays ... 1.5
Example: Czech Republic, Ecuador (.5)
Hilarious, read-it-aloud to your friends ... 1
Example: Australia and the Soccceroos!

Final score: This book is flawed, but a winner.

By the way, Dave Eggar's essay on the United States has an excellent section on how Americans hate diving and a passage that I would dismiss as pure conjecture, saying soccer was thought to be the sport of Communists (a sport invented, or at least codified, in the United Kingdom -- ?).

It's interesting to note that the Australia chapter also notes suspicions of soccer as ominously Mediterranean. It seems that in the U.S. and Australia, soccer certainly did seem foreign.

TTFGttWC may not have predicted Zidane's head [...] but it does in fact state (page 125):

"Wayne Rooney [is] very strong, incredibly skillful, and as alikely to get a red card, possibly for swearing, as he is to score one of the best goals you've ever seen."

The writer got that one correct!

Do read the remarkable tale of the Socceroos. Their history is hilarious and indicative of FIFA politics. This chapter may be a good illustration of the value of TTFGttWC. It's typical of the sort of thing soccer nuts already know but we newer fans don't. TTFGttWC will fill in the gaps in many folks' knowledge.

* In a book edited by Americans no less!

A mediocre effort I have to say. It's a good idea in principle, but in most chapters there seems to be a tenous link between the author and the country being written about. Merely travelers who happen to have been there for a game. To get to the true soul of the country a writer from that country should have been chosen. Though it might have been hard to find a togolese writer, there is surely one writer from a newspaper that could've been found. Instead they get a Kenyan to write about Togo. That's stupid, and falls for the lazy perception that all of Sub-saharan Africa is somehow the same. It's not, there's great difference between East and West Africa. It would be like asking a Russian to give insight into the role of soccer in England. Hopefully this book just suffers from a first edition sloppiness, and hopefully the publishers put better effort for a new edition in 4 years time.

This book's got interesting info. about each participating nation of the last World Cup. If you love the nations of the "beautiful game", this book is for you.

I was a soccer novice until the 2006 World Cup...this book is a wonderful tribute to the event! Any American who says soccer (football to the rest of the world) is boring should read this and a whole list of other books I could name including: "Soccer Against the Enemy", "How Soccer Explains the World" and "Fever Pitch". I live in Europe now and enjoy football, live, in all its glorious passion. I have bought numerous copies of this book for friends...even those who are not soccer fans since the used copies of this book are now so inexpensive because it is dated. The writers are chosen for each country predicted to be among the final teams in the World Cup and as countries are knocked out of the competition so are the writers, much to the dismay of the editors. I'm looking forward to the edition for the 2010 World Cup...it's a creative concept that allows great writers to wax eloquently about their love of the game and their country.

This book seems to be single-handedly responsible for touching off a lot of World Cup hysteria. Everybody I know has either heard of it, bought it, or read or plans to read it. The book begins with an introduction about football-soccer, recapping the recent World Cups. The tone throughout the essays is the typical postmodernist voice--literate, mildly political, urban, and internationalist. These are not scholarly essays on sport, but rather personal reminiscences of the intersection of football-soccer and each person's life.

There are tables listing each group, the dates and locations of matches, the referees and their bios, and sample tables of countries ranked by GDP, crime, etc.

There is a winking insouciant tone, with some essays being relatively flippant and political. For example, Eric Schlosser's essay mentions football-soccer only in passing and is really an essay about crime in Sweden. It is completely inappropriately included here, in my opinon, and pales in contrast to the Germany essay, a tender reminiscence of being East German and Germany's changing luck in the World Cup. Personally, I feel it's the best one.

This book is relatively cheap and serves as a conversation piece to such an extent that regardless of the variegated qualiy of the essays, it's worth buying and ultimately enlightening. Argentina's Maradona gets a loving portrayal here, and many of the good essayists display an honesty about the game in terms of rooting interests and appreciation that will set you lightyears ahead in your game knowledge.

Definitely get this book.

This book is a wonderful companion to the World Cup. The Thinking Fan's Guide gives the reader new insights into the personalities of each country. Benjamin Pauker's remarkable contribution on the Ukraine is one of my favorites. A Must Read!

It was one of the most interesting book i read. It captured the country and its relationship with soccer. wonderful writers I wish I could compliment the editors and the writers . Selection of the writers was the essence of this book.
Even people who are not soccer fans would like this book .It will give themt insight into nations politics and flavour of that country.
Iloved reading it
Kiran