The fourth and final book in my quatrain of books on the history of soccer, and this one is the best of the bunch. Blessedly it does not once again dedicate the entire book to the history of the World Cup, although four chapters dedicated to summarizing the championships from 1930 to 1994 make up the bulk of the book. Better to my mind are the parts discussing the evolution of the game especially in the area of tactics using graphics and examples from the World Cup greats and not-so-greats. With it’s exhaustive appendices on all things soccer, this is a book I’d like to purchase for my own library.

“Soccer is a sport in which low scoring is the rule. During a game there is a constant building up and letting down of emotions – expectations are frustrated far more often than they are rewarded. The scoring of a goal, the one goal that could decide the game, means the joyful, explosive release of damned-up hopes for one group of fans, utter despair for the other.” P. xxiii ( )