soccer

the author has done a masterful job of conveying the true love/hate relationship that weaves its way through italian society with respect to soccer. the development of the personalities involved in the team, as well as the people living in this tiny mountain town, was wonderful and endearing. his frustration with the coach over tactics, his opinions about the players and the men who run the team, and the funny stories about the townspeople are well worth reading. mcginnis actually helped me develop a deeper appreciation of italian soccer. i have always found italian soccer boring and ugly to watch, as i have always been a fan of south american soccer and the "beautiful game" of brazil. but after reading this story of "the miracle" i can now at least appreciate the mentality behind their defensive style of play, and the passion of the italian fans. the author has shown both the brightest and the darkest side of a game i have played, lived for, and followed since 1967. bravo, joe. bravo. if you are a soccer fan, you will love this book.

This book has a hilarious beginning and I was all set to enjoy the book until the author's character started to seep through the pages of the story. The author's behavior was just like the stereotype of the "Ugly American" and I was embarrassed at his actions. The book was an interesting portrayal of a small town in Italy, and the antidotes of the town's citizens and the soccer players were interesting and well written. I do not know anything about soccer and I found the descriptions of the games tedious and boring. I would not recommend this book to anyone who is not a soccer fan. The author recounted conversations in Italian, and then translated the Italian into English. A small dose of this is ok for effect, but when most of the conversations are presented in this manner, it becomes monotonous.

Reviewer: tom cieszinski from United States
The above quote is found on page 345 of this book and a renowned author in his own right, of various books, including one on football-soccer; "football in sun and shadow; an emotional history of the World Cup." This phrase, if I had to pick one, out of this multi-dimensional book would best summarise this outstanding work by Joe McGinnis.
Outstanding, I do not believe, I will reiterate what other reviewers have excellently recanted about this book; I would say, what I believe McGinnis brings to his writing, are numerous literary references as the above and an abundant use of the Italian language make this an excellent read.

Agreeing with one reviewer, half way through the book, it unravels some, some I say, but then, comes back for an excellent finish.

Some opine, Joe McGinnis is the "bulldozer" in this work, that he contains shade of being an "ugly American", to me however, when all is said and done & it is forgivable; understand me there please, but he falls short, of the players, he supposedly "cares" so much about, these hapless heroes, he presents in such a rich context, in their achievements, most to never be recognized in the very large system of Italian soccer, Calcio. He falls short, he burns bridges, he does not become a part of the system, but at what cost?

I would characterise Mr. McGinnis as being "pushy", similar to the second guessings of a "Monday morning quarterback" or as being confrontational and abrasive at times but by golly; who isn't or has not been at some periods of time in their life? Why, Mr. McGinnis faults the system at some points of this book, but if he were doing this in most countries, namely the US and giving advice to a coach, in this case, Osvaldo Jaconi; he might well run into a "my way or the highway" mentality (can one picture, an author of a book, giving advice to an American sports coach in the locker room, with so much frequency? I doubt it). Absolutely, correct, is the reviewer who opines he should have handled the ending differently and without giving it away as well; we have something, that is on a minor scale, similar to the Shoeless Joe Jackson Blacksox scandal of Baseball. The thing is, is that in this book, "corruption" plays a rather minor part of the book as a whole. In fact and very humorously, McGinnis often places his opinions on Coach Jaconi on how a game should be played or who should play in the game. Though he gets away with this, as far as the ownership and the office management of the team, Castel Di Sangro goes, I am surprised, McGinnis gets away with many of the things he does; read that to say; the ownership has shades seemingly of the Sicilian scenes from Godfather II; not that extreme, I mind you, but the author does seem to propose this thesis. In fact, we would be led to believe, from what McGinnis writes, that the whole of Italy, to some extent, has "organised crime" as a part of the system, though it is not as pronounced as that which we see in Sicily.

And I do believe, for the minor role, of speaking about the so-called "corruption" in this book, Mr. McGinnis quotes Eduardo Galeano's writings on soccer. Has McGinnis seen how, even in the World Cup, at times, one can see, games, in these seemingly most important of all soccer games, absolute sham calls? We saw such in the last World Cup, probably prime examples, but these are by no means, the only examples.

McGinnis takes us to places, we previously have not been; so I five star it. Once in one of these overseas countries, I stayed in a hotel, where a visiting team was doing as well. I felt for the players, I can relate to the book; in that the team I personally had contact with was by no means in the upper echelon of the league.

All of that I say, is well and good, but this book, shines, on it's writing of the games, the season and story line,

"...With one voice, the crowd was chanting, "Ca-Stell-O! Ca-Stell-O!" (page 347).

I can pass on some of the extemporary info but I take the good with the bad. I'm looking for a sequel; which I doubt can ever be; maybe something similar should be written by the author.

Oh, and lastly, I have the hard-cover edition of this book, there seems to be about 16 pages of photos, vs. what someone mentioned, possibly reading a paperback edition, said his book did not have the photographs. I'd find it difficult to fathom this book without the accompanying pictures, the first being of the town of Castel di Sangro; very picturesque; a team photo; photos of virtually every major character in the book, including il Signore Rezza and including pictures of the team in their "Soviet Jeans" uniforms.