If Sir Nigel wants to open his place up for a book club, I'm down, or we can meet at Stags. Let's actually get a meet-up going for real.
I was volunteering his place in jest. Let's do it though - Stags sounds good. Maybe after the new years?
I guess to add my two cents: Books - The Ball is Round - Excellent read. It's incredibly detailed and sometimes dry and you may find yourself glossing over certain portions but there is more than enough material to go around. Inverting the Pyramid - Another very good read. This and The Ball is Round actually complement each other nicely as they each focus on different topics. Soccernomics - I haven't heard this one mentioned as yet but it is very interesting. Don't let the title fool you by thinking it is a boring book. It is full of interesting stories and uses statistics to discuss topics in a very entertaining way. It's actually probably the most entertaining out of the three books I mention here. Movies/Documentaries - The Damned United - Great movie and actually pretty damn funny as well. Once in a Lifetime - As I wasn't around during the NASL days, it was great to see all the insanity that was going on during the late Cosmos days. It will also provide some context as to why MLS has taken such a measured approach with salary caps, player contracts, etc. Paleda - I haven't heard this one mentioned either. Its a nice relatively short documentary about two recently graduated college soccer players who travel all across the world and actually play whatever pick up games they can find with the locals. I thought it pretty fun to watch. Also, all the movies I mentioned can be found on netflix.
I haven't read it but Gwendolyn Oxenham (the girl from Paleda) wrote a book called "Finding the Game" about the experience as well. http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Game-Twenty-five-Countries-Search/dp/1250002044
If you want a good history of MLS, nothing is better than BigSoccer's own Beau Dure's "Long Range Goals". Great read about the early history and foundation of the league. Of course for humor the "Beckham Experiment" can't be missed. Grant Wahl did a great job of looking, mostly objectively, at the disasterous first years.
Nice recommendations on US soccer in the posts above. The Beckham Experiment is a great read. It's not at all a puff piece in Beckham. Grant Wahl is a real journalist and doesn't hide or paper over the good stuff. There's a great story in there about Ruud Gullit and fried chicken. Also, if you want some really good reference books about US soccer, I'd recommend these: The Encyclopedia of American Soccer History. It's what is sounds like. More info about the alphabet soup of soccer leagues in US soccer history than you ever imagined. Plus, all you ever wanted to know about the likes of the Fall River Marksmen or Bethlehem Steel. The American Soccer League 1921-1931, The Golden Years of American Soccer. It's more of a reference book than a narrative, but still lots if interesting info. Both of those books - as well as the other books and movies that people have mentioned - about US soccer show how much of a history the game has in this country. Americans should know about their own soccer history and be proud of the game's life here. It's had ups and downs - and, frankly, before MLS there were more downs - but there's a lot there. American soccer fans don't need to try to sound British by using their sports terms or try to mimic their way of doing things. American soccer has its own history.
The whole Ruud Gullit section of the book is almost fictional in its comedy and out-of-this-world stupidity and misfortune. For more US Soccer history, check out Roger Allaway's Blog. Couple of my favorite posts of his: Shirt Sponsors first appeared in America First Game in Your State Texas?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083284/ What? It's loosely based on a true story. And a 5'-0" tall goalkeeper is entirely believable Also, you get to see footballers like Pele and Bobby Moore try their hand at acting.
Jorge Campos, Adolfo Rios, 'El Conejo' Perez, Nick Rimando are all Robert Hatch height or shorter. what they get right is that even during WWII the US was only succesful at exporting goalkeepers.
[Quote = That Anderson bloke (how can a Brazilian be name Anderson - Never Mind)American soccer fans don't need to try to sound British by using their sports terms or try to mimic their way of doing things. American soccer has its own history.[/quote] Wait - I'm confused. So if I'm American do I have to give up the sports terms I grew up with? Never mind Yanks - here's a photo taken of the very first team I ever followed (although it was a few years later).
To a good extent, Once in a Lifetime's viewpoint about the history of soccer in America is that soccer didn't exist here before the NASL.
So I've watched a couple of Netflix suggestions while on vacation this week. http://m.imdb.com/title/tt2006869/ A surprisingly candid look at events from Bernie Ecclestone & Flavio Briatore's purchase of Queen's Park Rangers to their promotion to the premier league. I found myself wondering if they knew they were being filmed. http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1815903/ This was pretty good too. Jay had some guts to go play in a pub league in England.
Paul Kennedy posted this short video of the 1924 USOC final on twitter. It may be the oldest surviving video of US soccer. According to the caption on youtube, the Fall River Marksmen (Mass.), champions of the American Soccer League traveled to St. Louis to play Vesper Buick, the champions of the St. Louis Soccer League. The post on youtube has more details.
I think that far and away the best history of American soccer is "Soccer in a Football World" by David Wangerin.
Speaking of Hillsborough: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/New-Hillsborough-probe-death-verdicts-overturned-4130448.php
I didn't really take that away from the movie-They focused that their was no pro soccer but that there were regional hotbeds. All of which I agree, objectively as the truth you sir are the man. I almost bought this DVD when I was living in the UK until the man reminded me about the regional differences in DVDs. He tried to explain the switching format thing for a Mac but I just nevermind, I'll probably screw up my laptop doing that.
Our U.S. Open Cup is 100 years old now. Crowning consecutive National Champions. But to many, our nation has no history with the world's game. Sigh.
Currently on the Senor Cool Book Shelf: Jose Mourinho: Simply the Best--Goes through the Chelsea 05-06 season match by match. More Than Just A Game--Soccer in South Africa on Robben Island during the 60's and 70's Tevez--Biography of that miserable prick It You're Second, You're Nothing: Ferguson and Shankly--Compares the careers of the managers Hard Tackles and Dirty Baths by George Best--George gives his takes on football from 1962-1974 Blessed--The Autobiography of George Best--Absolutely loved this book My Chelsea Dream--The story of the rebuilding of Chelsea by Ken Bates Captain for Life and Other Temporary Assignments--John Harkes talks about his career and how it ended Long Range Goals--Story of the MLS How Soccer Explains the World--Described in prior posts The Fix--Discusses match fixing all over the world. Completely messed me up! Guus Hiddink, Going Dutch--Talks about the career of Hiddink Ajax, The Dutch and the War--Talks about Ajax and soccer in Holland during World War II Carlo Ancelotti--His Autobiography 20 Years with Brian Clough--Duncan Hamilton folowed Clough for the newspapers for 20 years Behind the Curtain--Talks about soccer in Eastern European countries during the Cod War Anatomy of England--Talks about the 10 matches that define England Mourinho: Anatom of a Winner--Talks about the qualities of Mourinho The Damned United, The Unforgiven and We Are the Damned United--The story of Clough and his 44 days at Leeds Tor--The history of German football Englischer Fussball--How the Germans interpret English Football---Very interesting read The World is a Ball--Talks about fandom in football, especially the Irish Among the Thugs--An American gets involved in English Hooliganism La Roja--History of Spanish Football Soccernomics--Sociology of Soccer Soccer Against the Enemy--Same things St. John and Greavsies Funy old Games--Stories about football from Ian St. John and Jimmy Greaves Brilliant Orange--How the Dutch view soccer Game of their Lives--Story of the American defeat of England in 1950 Bloody Confused--An American starts to love the game, supporting Portsmouth Cloughie, Walking on Water--His Autobiography Ossie--Bigraphy of Peter Osgood, Chelsea Legend The Bonnie Prince--Biography of Charlie Cooke, Chelsea and Scotland legend Fever Pitch--Book about supporting the game Geoff Hurst, Hand of God and Biggest Rows in Football--Former referee Graham Poll breaks down some of the most important refereeing decisions in the history of the World Cup Scoring at Half Time--George Best tells stories from his time as a player Red Army General--Tony O'Neill talks about being the leader of the Manchester United Hooligans The Italian Job--Gianluca Vialli talks about soccer in both England and Italy Inverting the Pyramid--History of Tactics Seeing Red--Graham Poll talks about his career as a referee Dennis Wise's autobiography--Interesting story about Dennis Wise Big Match Bingo--Waiting for the ultimate football sayings The Manager--Story about the history of football managers The Beckham Experiment--Story of Beckham in MLS Didier Drogba--His Autobiography Right now, I am reading, Broken Dreams, which talks about how money is ruining British Football. That is about 4 years worth of reading, and I have a long list to continue.
Now in the collection, The Ten Shirt: How the United States Could Have Won the 1982 World Cup. I will start on that one tomorrow and we will see how this one plays out.