Remember a few years ago how everyone --myself included-- was all OMFG when "How Soccer Explains
The World Came Out"? I was all tits-over-tail about and then my man Tom Fina, The Angriest Man in
Metroland
â„¢, hit me with the heat one night that "Frank Foer is just Kuper light".
Intrigued, I had to find out who this Simon Kuper was so I read his engrossing "Soccer Against the
Enemy" and found myself swiftly agreeing with Fina.
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New football book titles out this month include We Are The Damned United, another take on Brian
Clough's ill-fated stay at Leeds in the 70s, written as a response to David Peace's classic The
Damned Utd and an autobiography of BBC football commentator John Motson Motty: Forty Years in the
Commentary Box.
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One shouldn't be in the business of making blind endorsements, but I'm going to step out and echo
my dude Dunny's co-sign on Steve Sirk's new Columbus Crew book, A Massive Season. I haven't read it
but it's just nice to see some American soccer-based product available in Amazon.com.
This coupled with the long, long, long-awaited release of Simon Kuper's upcoming book,
Soccernomics, makes for a banner month for The Largest Library of Soccer Related Literature on the
Jersey Shoreâ„¢.
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New football book titles out this month include an autobiography of former Saints' icon Matt Le
Tissier Taking The Tiss: My Autobiography, a biography of Eric Cantona Cantona: The Rebel Who Would
Be King and a book on African football Feet Of The Chameleon.
Other new books published in September are Celtic's Lost Legend an autobiography from George
Connelly and No Smoke, No Fire by David Jones, an account of the false accusations of child abuse
brought against the former Stockport County, Southampton, Wolves and now Cardiff manager.
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Remember a few years ago when "How Soccer Explains the World" came out and everyone thought
Franklin Foer was the next Simon Kuper? For 8 minutes and 9 seconds you can relive those heady
times once again courtesy of the CBC. Thanks Canada!
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Raphael Honigstein makes his living as a football interpreter. Best known in the English
speaking world for his columns on German football in the Guardian and participation in
that newspaper's well-known football podcast, he plays the reverse role in his home country, acting
as English football correspondent for the Suddetsche Zeitung.
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Why England Lose & and Other Curious Phenomena ExplainedSimon Kuper &
Stefan SzymanskiISBN: 0007301111
HarperSport;
Hardback, 352pp
After
Football Against the Enemy announced his arrival with a bang in 1994, every Simon
Kuper book carries a huge weight of expectation.
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Hello people!. It's the day many people have waited for; Transfer deadline day. Now I expect at
least 2 signing for Arsenal today but we'll have to wait and see I'll keep you posted.
The Competition
Arsenal-highlights.co.uk has teamed up with Hamlyn Book Publishers to offer you
two new Arsenal books, not even released to the public worth a combined £30!
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The Bromley BoysDave Roberts
ISBN: 1906032246
Portico;
Paperback, 272pp
Non-league football, the heart of the game, where only true fans live and breathe. I used to be one
of them, but remember thinking as I stood frozen on the crumbling terraces of another
middle-of-nowhere 'stadium', slurping thermonuclear hot chocolate the taste of sewer water, that it
helps if you support a winning team in these circumstances.
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A few weeks ago, Tom Dunmore asked me to be Pitch Invasion's regular book reviewer even though
he knew full well my blogging track record back is just this side of abysmal (I am, to the
half-dozen of you who read my work, the blogger known as Antonio Gramsci). I was so flattered I
actually accepted but ever since, I've been fretting over what to write my first column about, not
least because I haven't actually read a football book other than the amply-reviewed Beckham
Experiment in several months and my next fix from Amazon.
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The Beckham Experiment media blitz rolls on and if you live in Brooklyn it's rolling your way
tomorrow night. Author Grant "Watch how I ball" Wahl will be in D.U.M.B.O at the Varsity Letters
event alongside ESPN writer Wright Thompson and New York Times writer Bruce Weber, author of
As
They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires, at Gelf Magazine's free event at Jan
Larsen Art Studios.
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Italian soccer, or calcio, is perhaps one of the more seductive of Europe's footballing cultures.
With defenders taught to dribble out of their own 16-yard box while moonlighting as fashion models,
and a turbulent history marked with corr...
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Italian soccer, or calcio, is perhaps one of the more seductive of Europe's footballing cultures.
With defenders taught to dribble out of their own 16-yard box while moonlighting as fashion models,
and a turbulent history marked with corr...
Click to continue reading...
Italian soccer, or calcio, is perhaps one of the more seductive of Europe's footballing cultures.
With defenders taught to dribble out of their own 16-yard box while moonlighting as fashion models,
and a turbulent history marked with corr...
Click to continue reading...
Italian soccer, or calcio, is perhaps one of the more seductive of Europe's footballing cultures.
With defenders taught to dribble out of their own 16-yard box while moonlighting as fashion models,
and a turbulent history marked with corr...
Click to continue reading...
Italian soccer, or calcio, is perhaps one of the more seductive of Europe's footballing cultures.
With defenders taught to dribble out of their own 16-yard box while moonlighting as fashion models,
and a turbulent history marked with corr...
Click to continue reading...
Italian soccer, or calcio, is perhaps one of the more seductive of Europe's footballing cultures.
With defenders taught to dribble out of their own 16-yard box while moonlighting as fashion models,
and a turbulent history marked with corr...
Click to continue reading...
Italian soccer, or calcio, is perhaps one of the more seductive of Europe's footballing cultures.
With defenders taught to dribble out of their own 16-yard box while moonlighting as fashion models,
and a turbulent history marked with corr...
Click to continue reading...
Italian soccer, or calcio, is perhaps one of the more seductive of Europe's footballing cultures.
With defenders taught to dribble out of their own 16-yard box while moonlighting as fashion models,
and a turbulent history marked with corr...
Click to continue reading...
Italian soccer, or calcio, is perhaps one of the more seductive of Europe's footballing cultures.
With defenders taught to dribble out of their own 16-yard box while moonlighting as fashion models,
and a turbulent history marked with corr...
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When David Beckham signed with the LA Galaxy in 2007, I wrote the following:
Even if Beckham's price is half the figure mentioned above, the league will recoup its
investment. Beckham will put fannies in the seats and bring domestic and international exposure to
MLS. This will attract even more sponsors at higher rates.
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Failure is almost always a more interesting subject for a book than success. Grant Wahl did not
originally intend to spend 16 months following the dramatic disaster that was the David Beckham
Experiment in America: but when Beckham's celebrated arrival as the saviour of American soccer
degenerated into a farce of injuries and infighting at the Galaxy, the juicy tale of how the
biggest investment in American soccer history resulted in one of the worst team meltdowns ever in
MLS became the story he had to follow all the way through.
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Last week, saw the confederations Cup reach its climax with an exciting game seeing Brazil come
from two goals down to beat the USA 3-2. The USA certainly impressed the worldwide audience by
beating Spain and going close against the South American powerhouse. Perhaps their world ranking of
12 is merited.
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In 2007, David Beckham, the golden boy of soccer, shocked the international sports world when he
signed a five-year contract with an American team, the Los Angeles Galaxy. Under the direction of
his manager, Simon Fuller, the mastermind behind American Idol and the Spice Girls, Beckham was
ready for a monumental challenge and a risky adventure–ready, as Fuller put it, to earn his
stripes Stateside.
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I may or may not post anything else today; the ocean is down the street from me and is shcokingly
warm for June so I may make a move toward open water this afternoon. But if this is the last post
of the day I am fine, fine, fine with that because it's a good post. Or at least it links to
something good.
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As Real Madrid continue to build their new dream team, other teams are beginning to make moves
in the transfer market, World Cup qualifiers continue - good news for North Korea (a 0-0 draw
against saudi Arabia sees them through to the World Cup), not so good for Argentina (they lie
fourth in the South America table after losing 2-0 away to Ecuador), and of course, in South
Africa, the Confederations Cup is in full swing.
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If you don't subscribe to the Comments RSS feed, you missed the incredible news that my book is
officially a best-seller! In today's Washington Post, it debuted at #5 on the Hardcover
Nonfiction/General list, right below Michael J. Fox's memoirs. Thanks to Paul for causing me to
completely freak out.
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Last month I received a note from a teacher at Apopka High School in Apopka, Florida who is a
huge fan of  "Pretty Tough" by Liz Tigelaar, the first book in our young adult fiction series.Â
JoJo says, "I loved it as a teacher who sees students just like the ones in the book.
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I once entered 'The Rising Dough Bakery', a small establishment in central Cardiff, wearing an Ajax
t-shirt. The old Dutchman who worked there, well into his '70s at least, took one look at my attire
and said with a wistful smile, "I used to play for them, you know."
Half incredulous, I demanded he told me more, so he rolled off a string of hazy memories of
football in wartime Amsterdam.
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The press release for my book.
Limited Edition Collector's Vault Celebrates
President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama
Two-Volume Box Set Highlights First Family In Hundreds of Photographs
and More Than 90 Commemorative Souvenirs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Deb Murphy, Whitman Publishing
March 31, 2009 678.
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As some of you know, I was holed up in my apartment this winter for a few weeks working on a
book. I was referencing it on Twitter and Facebook, but kept it off the blog except for an allusion
to "an exciting work opportunity" shortly after I began work on it.
Well, I'm proud to announce that it will soon be out, and is available for pre-order from
Whitman Books.
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a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/27365656@N06/3379655245/" title="ClydeBest by
designatedplayers, on Flickr"img
src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3550/3379655245_9b7923ba31_o.jpg"
width="496" height="348" alt="ClydeBest" //abr /br /a
style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);" href="http://soccernet.espn.
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You know those bedside books that your Gran reads at night before she goes to bed? You know the
ones that you're meant to read one page a day and are often of a spiritual nature and whatnot? Day
of the Match is kind of like that except instead of getting a daily prayer you get a daily piece of
soccer history.
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On The Pitch 28 December @ 01:09 PM EST
I love to read, but find precious little time to do it during soccer seasons. So my stack of
'currently reading' books gets sort of high. Since I occasionally post book reviews, I figured I'd
post my current list of books I'm slowly reading through in case any of you have read them already
or [...]
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