Soccer in a football world : the story of America's forgotten game / David Wangerin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wangerin, David.

Series:

Sporting (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Sporting

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Soccer--United States--History.

Soccer.

Soccer--History.

History.

United States.

Physical Description:

350 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2008.

Summary:

David Beckham's arrival in Los Angeles represents the latest attempt to jump-start soccer in the United States where, David Wangerin says, it "remains a minority sport." With the rest of the globe so resolutely attached to the game, why is soccer still mostly dismissed by Americans?

Calling himself "a soccer fan born in the wrong country at nearly the wrong time," Wangerin writes with wit and passion about the sport's struggle for acceptance in Soccer in a Football World. A Wisconsin native, he traces the fragile history of the game from its early capitulation to the gridiron on college campuses to the United States' impressive performance at the 2002 World Cup. Placing soccer in the context of American sport in general, he chronicles its enduring struggle alongside the country's more familiar pursuits and recounts the shifting attitudes toward the "foreign" game. His story is one that will enrich the perspective of anyone whose heart beats for the sport, and is curious as to where the game has been in America-and where it might be headed.

Contents:

Carless Hands: Introduction 9

1 A Game of its Own: America's path to football isolation 15

2 Tangled Roots: The first American Soccer League 45

3 Strangers on a Boat: False dawns and hard landings for the national team 81

4 'We will become phenomenal': Ambition and folly in the Sixties 121

5 Moving the Goalposts: Pele and the Cosmos 151

6 Shootout to the Death: The collapse of the NASL 186

7 A Foot in the Door: Harsh lessons at Italia 90 217

8 Revenge of the Commie Pansies: The World Cup comes to America 244

9 Clash and Burn: MLS: back to square one 264

10 Momentary Insanity: In and out of love with the women's game 292

11 Take Me Out to the Soccer-specific Facility: The 2002 World Cup and beyond 315.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

9781592138852

1592138853

OCLC:

191758361