Just finished reading " The Damned United" by David Peace. It's a fictional look inside the head of "Ol big 'ead" himself, Brian Clough. The paranoia, the jealousy, the envy, the ambition of Clough reminds me of Mourinho today. Never at a loss for words, Clough basked in the limelight with Derby and then taking over his bitter rival, Don Revie's, championship Leeds United team. Clough only lasted 44 days at the helm but he did go on to take Nottingham Forest to the European Cup Championships 2 years in a row ('79 & '80). I also watched the movie , "The Damned United" immediately after reading the book. The book is good, the movie is better.
I read How Soccer Explains the World earlier this year. It was a fun read, but I thought the politics parts were sort of simplistic. I mean, I know it's supposed to be a loose association kind of thing but it still bugged me a little. I'm about halfway through Inverting the Pyramid and I *love* it. It's not quick reading, but there's a huge payoff. Between it and the ZonalMarking blog I find I'm watching games in a totally different way.
Just read Africa United by Steve Bloomfield. Easy read with magazine-depth insight into several African countries politics and the intersection with their football. Would have liked to have read before the World Cup started, but an interesting while the memories are still fresh.
I am currently reading Chasing The Game by Filip Bondy. A light, fast read nothing earthshattering so far but it does feature a chapter on Sam's Army featuring our very own Monty Rodrigues! So nice to know famous people http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WOnHG8fxL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
I just finished reading Harry Pearson's, "The Far Corner - A mazy dribble through north-east football" . It is #17 in 4-4-2's list of top soccer books. The book covers everything in north-east England football from St. James park to the Roker roar during the 1993-1994 season. Filled with humorous observations of players, officials, food, crowds, etc. " Irwin...wasn't actually a bad player when he had his mind on the game , crashed upending opponents, berating officials and fixing anyone who came within range with a glare that had 'Your dangly bits are going in the blender written all over in day-glo letters. The referee , a prancing poodle of a man with all the disciplinary control of a French teacher, passed this off as if it were some sort of boyish tomfoolery." "After half an hour Gretna's centre-forward, Les Armstrong....swaggered through the heart of the Seaham defence and struck the ball into the net. 'get bloody stuck in there Seaham man and stop fannying about.' This was typical of the sort of advice football crowds give to their teams. Ninety-nine percent of it is destructive, 'Get rid of it' 'Put him under' 'Welly it" Never once do you hear anyone shout , 'Use a bit of creativity , man' or 'Play an intricate series of passes and finish it with a viciously swerving half-volley, why don't you?' " No matter how many peoples' lives it touched, football was always denied a place in general history . Even in the North-East, where the game was so firmly embedded in the culture you couldn't have removed it without a general anaesthetic, the guide books and the tourist maps turned a blind eye, as if some marginal and slightly unsavory ceremony partaken of only by the devout and temporarily unhinged.They were just footballers. Their skill, creativity and genius were destined to be recorded only on the memories of those who watched them. And when those memories faded, or the people who carried them died, everything of the hard brilliance of these men, save for the skeleton facts and figures of their careers, would die with them." A good, humorous read of soccer in the North-east of England. Waiting for the same book that describes soccer in the northeast of the US...
The expression "LOL" is way too overused these days, but this line actually qualifies: "The referee, a prancing poodle of a man with all the disciplinary control of a French teacher"
This is a ref in Brazil...he has three kids but sure does "prance" [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaQ8WHWSgQc"]YouTube- gay referee - Schwuler Schiedsrichter‎[/ame]
On your recommendation, I just finished reading, More Than Just a Game: Soccer vs. Apartheid: The Most Important Soccer Story Ever Told by Chuck Korr & Marvin Close Apartheid in South Africa in the 60's created a large pool of political prisoners who were sent to the harsh Robben island. Tough conditions, poor food & cruel warders were all used to break the prisoners spirits. They became resolved to start their own football league on the island because they were "ever conscious that well-exercised minds and bodies were more able to fight off the depressing effects of long term imprisonment. Sports is a way of building character, of teaching proper values , of finding ways to persevere in the worst conditions. It is for keeping our spirits high and for cultivating , encouraging and maintaining the good and healthy relations among the residents of this place." From these horrible conditions was born the Makana Football Association. Based closely on FIFA guidelines , the league had three divisions and employed their own referee's. Initially based upon political party affiliations, the league brought the individuals together in a common cause. "The one thing the prisoners had the most of was time, and it was a lot better to spend it in meetings setting up sport than in idle thoughts about their life in prison and what they were missing at home. Much of the talk was about the ways in which they stood up to the authorities and what the prisoners had done to make life tolerable." "...representative of the feelings of innumerable poor communities around the world, from the barrios of Latin America to the ghetto's of the United States, to any number of predominantly poor working class industrial areas throughout Britain. It could just as easily come from the leadership in POW camps throughout Europe in the First or Second World Wars, where the inmates welcomed the chance to play sports as a much needed relief from the disappointment of having been captured and the hardship of imprisonment." "It was also clear that , as much as the men wanted to play football for its own sake , they regarded it as one activity in their ongoing struggle against the prison and the apartheid system that had sentenced them to Robben Island." By working together and organizing the league, it cemented the political unity against the apartheid regime and served them well once the system had been broken. "The men had been imprisoned because they knew how vital freedom was. Apartheid was evil, and the system would end only when people stood up and challenged it. On the island men found themselves in extreme circumstances, beyond what they might have imagined. They found ways to work together to ensure that the place that was meant to break them instead became one where they could find new resolve to continue the struggle. They created ways to prepare themselves for the new South Africa they hoped would come during their lifetimes." Their struggle resulted in their freedom, the end of the apartheid system and helped in bringing the world cup to South Africa. A good read that I would recommend. I read this on a Kindle, not sure if I am entirely used to this new format of reading. It makes bookmarking and taking notes a lot easier, just not sure about "the feel." My local library is at a disadvantage on this new format as I used to donate my soccer books to their growing collection. Guess I'll have to buy 2 copies of those books that I enjoy, one for me and one for them.
I have a friend with a Kindle and she likes it for traveling because she can take so many books in such a small space. But she prefers handling a real book most of the time. I was thinking of getting one for my daughter as a present but am unsure if she would really like it.
My mother got a Kindle for her birthday this year and is lending it to me until they become less expensive and I can get one of my own. I'll read something off it (not a soccer book) and report back.
Sorry to double-post, but I've read two books off my mother's Kindle and I just have to say that it's frightfully easy to use, though I once almost deleted a book because I hit the wrong button. On my mother's Kindle, the letters are really big and books seem both longer and shorter than they really are, if that makes any sense at all. I'm not sure I'd want to read any soccer books on it, though. Well, except The Ball is Round, because that's a frightfully large book that I may never finish.
1) You can't completely delete content on the kindle if it was purchased from amazon. Amazon allows you to re-download any content that you have purchased, including downloading it to a newer kindle. Once you purchase a book, you own it "forever." 2) You easily can change the font size with a click or two.
So anyway, back to the topic. I just finished reading "The Miracle of Castel di Sangro" by Joe McGuinness. This book has been out for a few years and I had been meaning to read it for a while, and I'm glad I got around to it. Highly recommended if you haven't read it. The funny thing is that even though it doesn't take place all that long ago, it sure seems like an eternity ago. It chronicles the 1996-97 season of Castel di Sangro, a small club in the Abruzzi region of Italy who made their way up from an amateur side all the way up to Serie B. I believe now they are in Serie C. The writer lives in the small town of 5,000 people and immerses himself with the team. The book gets into a lot of the nitty-gritty details of the day-to-day operations of the team, and how the author develops relationships with the manager and players, and also gets to be pretty good in Italian (no one connected to the team spoke any English at all, other than a translator he hired early on). He also gets into a lot of the politics and corruption of how things tend to work in Italy, especially outside of the major centers of wealth. There is also some surprising Rev-related content. The author is friends with Alexi Lalas, and the book takes place when he was a Rev. Lalas played in Padova for 2 years before this, and ironically enough, they had been relegated to Serie B for the season in the book. Castel di Sangro face Padova and, of all people, Walter Zenga in goal in an early season game. The club also trials Joseph Addo, a guy who the Revs also brought in (I believe he played for us in a friendly vs. Ajax),and eventually ended up playing for Tampa Bay. There's an interesting conversation between the author and Thomas Rongen, who was the Revs manager at the time. Rongen was considering bringing in Massimo Lotti, the CdS goalkeeper who was clearly one of the better players on the team, basically winning several games single-handedly. However, he was coming off an injury and had trouble getting his starting job back from a guy who was a fan and management favorite. Rongen was willing to consider him (and had seen impressive videos), but was concerned that he wasn't playing regularly. Instead they ended up signing Walter Zenga. The book says we paid Zenga $500,000, but if I remember correctly, Zenga's cap number was more around the $150,000 range. Anyway, it's a great read, especially if you're interested in the lower leagues and Italian culture.
I enjoyed this book very much as well but how did you feel about the ending? For me it's one of the few books where the ending left me pist off but also disappointed with the corruption. It made me realize the game is not as pure as you think it is and with all the match fixing scandals in recent years it's no surprise it's just not happening in Italy but a world wide issue.
This is a very good book. But, if reading this book pissed you off, then you do not want to read " The Fix, soccer and organized crime." by Declan Hill. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=633528&page=16 It deals with fixes the world over
Well, I knew about that kind of thing happening, but yes, it is a pretty disgusting aspect. It makes American sports seem so "pure," and by and large, I think on the level of competition, that kind of thing is pretty rare here. The author, of course, blew a gasket when he found out and didn't buy the "but Joe, you don't understand..." kind of reasoning from the players. The real shame is that the week before when they won to assure staying up for another year was truly a wonderful moment, where they had triumphed against the odds. It really was a time for celebration for the whole community, and it's too bad they couldn't enjoy it for long. In this instance, like a similar scandal that went down with Standard Liege in Belgium when I lived there, you almost wonder why they would need to fix the game. CdS was pretty bad away from home, and weren't a very good team anyway. They had already survived, and Bari, one of the better teams were at home in front of a huge crowd in a do-or-die game. You'd be a fool to bet against them anyway. It is all about favor trading, and who knows what kind of backdoor deal they struck.
I've heard a lot of good things about this book and have it on my list of books I want to read. I know reading it will most likely piss me off but I want to read as many books as possible about the sport, so I know eventually I will read it. By the way thank you for all your book reviews and your recommendations. I always look forwarded to reading your reviews and most of the time buy a book you recommend. It still amazes me teams would do this, I know money talks but what about your integrity. I'm curious how did fans react to the match fixing?
Well, in Belgium, Standard Liege were implicated in a match fixing scanddal in 1982. They were in the UEFA Cup and were to play against Barcelona (this was back when you actually had to be a league champion to play in the Champions Cup). They "allegedly" paid off some Belgian League teams to take it easy on them as they were concentrating on Europe. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but Eric Gerets who later managed Belgium and now is in charge of Marseille, had a lengthy ban for his role in the scandal. When the stroy broke I went to a Standard Liege match with a friend who was considering doing a story on it for the Wall Street Journal where we both worked at the time. We asked a bunch of supporters what they thought of Gerets in particular and most people just shrugged their shoulders and didn't think it was that big of a deal. Personally, that was a bit of an eye-opener, since I really didn't know a whole lot about the business end of soccer at the time, and certainly didn't understand how something like this could go down. I was even more surprised and disturbed at how it wasn't a huge shock. Gerets was a tough-as-nails defender and was definitely one of the best Belgian players of his generation. They were actually pretty good in that era, making at least the second round in every World Cup (and finishing 4th in '86). Given that Gerets has had a successful managerial career, the ban and his role in the scandal hasn't prevented him from getting jobs. There are some shady things going on in American sports, but nothing like this. There have been gambling scandals, but overall, I'd say most people believe that the competitive elements of sports are on the level. You never hear people thinking of a fix, even if a really improbable upset happens.
The rankings that MrSangster put together earlier in this thread were awesome, and maybe even another top 10 list of books you read since you made that countdown would be awesome! My opinions on a few: Soccernomics: Interesting read, missing some "soul" I guess. Best part: Game theory in penalty kicks. Beckham Experiment: Of course more interested in US Soccer so this was a book I really enjoyed. Best part: Story of Alan Gordon's life. Long Range Goals - History of MLS: Drags on in parts where its recapping seasons. Learned a lot about the formation of the league and other stuff about the early days of MLS (for those younger than 24). Best Part: The Single Entity Lawsuit
I started this thread based upon an article I read in Four Four Two. Bolded below are the books on that list that I have read This is Four-Four-Two's top-50 1) Football Against the Enemy (S.Kuper) 2) Fever Pitch (N.Hornby) 3) All Played Out: The Story of Italia 90 (P.Davies) 4) Brilliant Orange (D.Winner) 5) A Strange Kind of Glory (E.Dunphy) 6) Keeper of Dreams (R.Reng) 7) Full Time (T.Cascarino & P.Kimmage) 8) Tor! (U.Hesse-Lichtenberger) 9) Football in Sun and Shadow (E.Galeano) 10) Puskas on Pusksa (R.Taylor & K.Jamrich) 11) The Glory Game (H.Davies) 12) The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro (J.McGinniss) 13) Niall Quinn: The Autobiography (N.Quinn & T.Humphries) 14) Only a Game? (E.Dunphy) 15) The Boss: the many sides of Alex Ferguson (M.Crick) 16) The Beautiful Game? Searching for the Soul of Football (D.Conn) 17) The Far Corner: A Mazy Dribble through North-East Football (H.Pearson) 18) Addicted (T.Adams) 19) Football: The Golden Age (J.Tennent) 20) Dynamo: Defending the Honour of Kiev (A.Dougan) 21) The Football Man (A.Hopcraft) 22) Those Feet: A Sensual History of English Football (D.Winner) 23) Passovotchka: Moscow Dynamo in Britain 1945 (D.Downing) 24) A Season with Verona (T.Parks) 25) Tackling My Demons (S.Collymore) 26) Keane (R.Keane & E.Dunphy) 27) Ajax: The Dutch, The War (S.Kuper) 28) White Angels (J.Carlin) 29) Managing My Life (A.Ferguson) 30) Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life (A.Bellos) 31) El Macca: Four Years with Real Madrid (S.McManaman & S.Edworhty) 32) The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw: The Robin Friday Story (P.Hewitt & P.McGuigan) 33) Kicking and Screaming (R.Taylor & A.Ward) 34) England v Argentina (D.Downing) 35) MorboL The Story of Spanish Football (P.Ball) 36) The Football Grounds of England and Wales (S.Inglis) 37) Ajax Barcelona Cruyff: The ABC of an Obstinate Maestro (F.Barend & H.Van Dorp) 38) The Story of the World Cup (B.Glanville) 39) The Mavericks (R.Steen) 40) Walking on Water (B.Clough) 41) Left Foot Forward (G.Nelson) 42) The Billy the Fish Football Yearbook (Viz Comics) 43) Barca: A People's Passion (J.Burns) 44) The Way It Was (S.Matthews) 45) Back Home: The Story of England in the 1970 World Cup (J.Dawson) 46) Steak...Diana Ross: Diary of a Football Nobody (D.McVay) 47) The Beautiful Game: A Journey through Latin American Football (C.Taylor) 48) Steaming In (C.Ward) 49) Out of His Skin: The John Barnes Phenomenon (D.Hill) 50) The Fashion of Football (P.Hewitt & M.Baxter I then listed the books that I had read from the start through December 2008 1) The Ball is Round -A Global History of Soccer, by David Goldblatt 2) Soccer in a Football World - The Story of America's Forgotten Game, by David Wangerin 3) White Angels: Beckham, Real Madrid & The New Football, by John Carlin. 4) Bloody Confused, a clueless American Sportswriter Seeks Solace in English Soccer, by Chuck Culpepper 5) 23 Days in Korea by Andy Gustafson. 6) Love & Blood at the World Cup with Footballers, Fans, and Freaks, by Jamie Trecker. 7) My Life and the beautiful game: The autobiography of soccer's greatest star, Pele 8) The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup ,edited by Matt Weiland & Sean Wilsey. 9) Soccerhead: An Accidental Journey into the Heart of the American Game" by Jim Haner. 10) Futebol: Soccer , the Brazilian Way by Alex Bellos. 11) Keane: The Autobiography by Roy Keane with Eamon Dunphy 12) National pastime - How Americans Play baseball and the rest of the World Plays Soccer" by Stefan Szymanski and Andrew Zimbalist 13) March of the Hooligans, Soccer's Bloody Fraternity by Dougie Brimson. 14) Soccer in Sun and Shadow by Eduardo Galeano translated by Mark Fried 15) American Soccer league 1921-1931, The Golden years of American Soccer by Colin Jose 16) Kick The Balls by Alan Black. 17) Teambuilding - The Road to Success by Rinus Michels 18) The Rough Guide to Cult Football 19) The Dutch Coaching Notebook by Henry Kormelink and Tjeu Seeveren. 20) The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuscinski Since that time, I have read the following books and rank those books in descending order 1) Inverting the Pyramid - the history of Football tactics by Jonathan Wilson 2) Only A Game?" by Eamon Dunphy 3) The Glory Game by Hunter Davies 4) Soccernomics - Why England loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey and even Iraq are destined to become the kings of the world's most popular sport by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski. 5) Outcasts United - A Refugee team, an American Town by Warren St. John 6) Seeing Red by Graham Poll 7) Tor! The Story of German Football by Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger 8) Dynamo - Triumph and Tragedy in Nazi Occupied Kiev by Andy Dougan 9) More Than Just a Game: Soccer vs. Apartheid: The Most Important Soccer Story Ever Told by Chuck Korr & Marvin Close 10) Morbo - The Story of Spanish Football 11) The Beckham Experiment - How the world's most famous athlete tried to conquer America by Grant Wahl 12) A Kick in the Grass - the slow rise and quick demise of the NASL" by CliveToye 13) The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw, The Robin Friday Story by Paul McGuigan and Paolo Hewitt 14) The Far Corner - A mazy dribble through north-east football by Harry Pearson' 15) Hunting Grounds - A Scottish Football Safari by Gary Sutherland 16) The Damned United by David Peace 17) Can we play you every week?" by Max Veloday 18) Anoraknophobia: The Life and times of a football obsessive by Rob Grillo 19) Pointless - a season with Britain's worst football team by Jeff Connor 20) We Don't Know What We Are doing - adventures with the extraordinary fans of an ordinary team by Adrian Chiles 21) Winning At All Costs, a scandalous history of Italian Soccer 22) Congratulations, You have just met the I.C.F. (West Ham United) by Cass Pennant. 23) Soccer Dad - a Father, A son and a magic season by W.D. Wetherell 24) World Cup 2010 - The indispensable guide to soccer & geopolitics by Stephen Stark & Harrison Stark 25) The Fix, soccer and organized crime by Declan Hill. 26) One Ginger Pele - Football's funniest songs & chants by Chris Parker 27) Thinking Outside The Box - my journey in search of the beautiful game by Brad Friedel. 28) Ward's Soccerpedia, The Lore and Laws of The Beautiful Game by Andrew Ward 29) Fitba Gallimaufry, essential and obscure facts from the History of Scottish Football by Adam Scott Finally, here are some great soccer books that are not on the previously mentioned lists in no order: 1) "Pitch Invasion" - three stripes, two brothers, one feud by Barbara Smit 2) How Soccer Explains the World By Franklin Foer 3) The Vision of a Champion: Advice & Inspiration from the World's most successful women's soccer coach - by Anson Dorrnace and Gloria Averbuch 4) The Man Watching: A Biography of Anson Dorrance, the unlikely Architect of the Greatest College Sports Dynasty Ever by Tim Crothers 5) The Geezers Guide to Football: A Lifetime of Lads, Lagers & Labels by Dougie Brimson 6) Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism. by Andrei S. Markovits and Steven L. Hellerman 7) Unlucky Whew!
Wow, big rep coming your way, now that is some dedication to reading about the sport. What's been your favorite book(s)? My top three have been Inverting the Pyramid, Dynamo: Triumph and Tragedy, and Brilliant Orange.
i honestly didnt go through all the posts but i have almost every single one of those books that was listed by the OP.... did anybody say "More Than Just a Game: Soccer Vs. the Apartheid"??? That book is amazing i highly reccomend it to anybody who is interested not only in soccer but how it helped an entire country (south africa) and helped the country get the WC held there.
That is a tough question because I have read so many books that are knowledgeable, fun and worth reading again. If I had to summarize a list into a Top 10, here is what I came up with.... 1) The Ball is Round -A Global History of Soccer, by David Goldblatt - Very comprehensive and goes beyond similar topics in such books as Football Against the Enemy, Soccer in a Football World, Offsides, et. al. 2) Inverting the Pyramid - the history of Football tactics by Jonathan Wilson- I love the story behind the history and evolution of soccer tactics 3) The Vision of a Champion: Advice & Inspiration from the World's most successful women's soccer coach - by Anson Dorrnace and Gloria Averbuch -Inspiring as a book on coaching and about one of the most successful soccer coaches in the world. Not just for women's soccer, this book can most definitely be applied to mens soccer as well 4) Soccernomics - Why England loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey and even Iraq are destined to become the kings of the world's most popular sport by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski - These two authors are outstanding writers and they have created a Freakonomics for soccer 5) Only A Game? by Eamon Dunphy - Diary of an English professional footballer. After his career ends he becomes an excellent soccer writer 6) White Angels: Beckham, Real Madrid & The New Football, by John Carlin. -Very well written. It is the fascinating story of behind the scenes of a team and the players. You coud also read A Season with Verona, Unlucky, Miracle of Castle di Sangro, The Glory Game, et. al. 7) Bloody Confused, a clueless American Sportswriter Seeks Solace in English Soccer, by Chuck Culpepper -Thoroughly enjoyable read about a player and "his team". More lighthearted than #6 above 8) Outcasts United - A Refugee team, an American Town by Warren St. John - You feel the passion of the coach for her players and for soccer throughout this book 9) Seeing Red by Graham Poll - You have books from players, fans, coaches, etc., but, this book gives you the totally unique perspective that only a referee can provide 10) The Geezers Guide to Football: A Lifetime of Lads, Lagers & Labels by Dougie Brimson - My favorite book in the " Hoolie lit" classification of soccer books This list would change weekly as I read something and it reminds about another book.
I just finished reading Beau Dure's book, " Long Range Goals -The Success Story of Major League Soccer."I've read books about the old ASL and NASL and have patiently waited for a similar book on MLS. Long overdue, I recommend this book to all the MLS, Revolution and BigSoccer fans because the book touches on all of these soccer segments. "In the United States , the game's history has been anything but free-flowing and beautiful. The game has lurched forward and tumbled back....The conventional wisdom is the United States has never known soccer in the past and is slowly but surely adopting it. The truth isn't so simple. Throughout the last century, the United States has seen boom times , but the roots have been shallow , blowing away with the next drought....the first Golden Era in American soccer featured the strong ASL.....when that league fell apart in the 1930's....the NASL, which drew plenty of attention in the late 70's and 80's....imploded in the mid-80's, leaving little in US soccer but the college game and the then thriving indoor game. From those ashes and a successful World Cup sprang the Major league soccer in 1996.......the miracle of MLS is not the occasional large crowd...The miracle is stability." The ability to put down actual roots is the greatest claim to fame for the MLS. The bottom was in 2001 when there were only three owners : AEG, Lamar Hunt and Bob Kraft. Yes, there have been teams that have folded and moved, but, the league has since expanded, generated TV revenues, and brought a soccer culture to America. " The league was gambling its greatest asset, the reputation for staying power that eluded every other US soccer league..." The book analyzes the games & events from the beginning up until the current state of affairs. Bruce Arena talks about the league, " ...a lot of people[owning teams] have absorbed a lot of losses. But I think more money needs to be put into the salary cap. The development side has to be expanded. Those minimum salaries need to be increased considerably. And I think you need a real reserve league. Your reserve players or your developmental players need to be trained separately and have their own competition in order for them to really develop properly....It's hard for me to be critical because I haven't spent any money on a soccer club. Sometimes it's difficult because the return on the investment isn't right in front of you. It takes many, many years.....I'd rather see that money spent on developing domestic players rather than saying we can go out and get second tier players elsewhere that don't cost that much." You can now see fans and young children wearing MLS jersey's. Not quite the "fourth major sport" in America, it is on the path to surpass hockey in the American sporting conscience. "Whether it passes the NHL or not, MLS is already entrenched more firmly than any other US soccer league of its size and stature. The NASL averaged more than 10,000 fans per game for its last 9 years, most of those during the Pele and expansion boom years. MLS has done it for 14 years, with little turnover in its teams. MLS fans have spent 14 years trading information and insults with other fans. Kids who can't remember a time before MLS existed are now wearing the team's colors in youth games. A handful of kids who can barely remember MLS's debut are playing in the league itself...The test is that the league is still here, and we're still talking about it 15 years later.....the only true validation of having made it is that it's still in existence and play is still going on." As someone who grew up on the NASL and painfully remembers the lean years after the demise of the NASL, Dure aptly summarizes the greatest achievement of MLS. " Whether MLS has arrived is a moot point. It's here. And it's healthy." A very good read and an excellent topic. I wish that Dure had been able to dig deeper into what really goes on in the MLS board rooms. Nonetheless, MLS fans need to read this book.