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Sto caricando le informazioni... Stamping Grounds: Exploring Liechtenstein and Its World Cup Dreamdi Charlie Connelly
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. Oh what fun. Subtitle of exploring Liechtenstein and its world cup dream is only half the story. Thoroughly enjoyable. ( ) If, like me, you like to root for the underdog, you'll enjoy Charlie Connelly's sports/travel narrative about his year following Liechtenstein's national soccer team. Liechtenstein is one of the smallest countries in Europe with a population of just over 30,000. The team is realistic about their chances against teams from much larger countries with lots of professional players to choose from. However, their goal is to improve the quality of soccer in their country and the skill level of their young players, and playing in the qualifying rounds for the World Cup is a means to achieve that goal. The plan is already working by the time Connelly comes along. The team he follows through the qualification matches for the 2002 World Cup includes a handful of professional and semi-professional players, as well as several amateurs. I became a Liechtenstein fan in the course of reading the book. I was impressed by the character of the players and by their outlook on life. Even the professional players realized that there's more to life than soccer, and they all had goals for life beyond soccer. They all seemed to be aware of the incredible opportunity that being on the national team gave them to play against some of the best players in Europe. While they might be a little star-struck, they weren't intimidated, and their defensive style of play forced their opponents to work hard for each goal. Connelly seems to have had a genuine admiration for most of the people he met in his travels to Liechtenstein. His humor is just as often at his own expense as anyone else's. His frequent trips gave him plenty of time to see all the country has to offer, and his book is as much travel narrative as sports journalism. Highly recommended for both sports fans and readers of travel literature. Zierikzee in de UEFA Cup en Schouwen-Duiveland in een kwalificatiepoule met Turkije en Engeland voor het EK 2004. Belachelijk? Het Zeeuwse eiland is qua inwonersaantal even groot als het vorstendom Liechtenstein, dat sinds 1993 een deelnemend lid is van de UEFA en sindsdien in 38 kwalificatieduels vijf treffers maakte en 35 maal verloor. Toch hield de nationale ploeg een jaar geleden de nederlaag tegen Spanje in het eigen Rheinpark Stadion te Vaduz beperkt tot 0-2. Schrijver Charlie Connelly was erbij. Op een regenachtige dag las Connelly hoe Liechtenstein in haar eerste duel in de voorronde voor het WK 2002 binnen 16 seconden op achterstand kwam tegen Israel en toch maar met 0-2 verloor. Toevallig had hij juist niets om handen en besloot daarop de nationale ploeg te volgen op haar pad naar een gedoodverfde laatste plaats in de groep. In de resterende zeven duels maakte Liechtenstein één luidbejubeld doelpunt, dat werd afgekeurd en verloor alles. Cijfermatig leek de deelname van de ploeg aan kwalificatierondes een aberratie, enkel gericht op het binnenhalen van tv-gelden, maar bij het uitlezen van het boek zal er toch geen lezer zijn die het de enthousiaste mengelmoes van amateurs en de enkele professionals misgunt om mee te spelen. Een vlek op de Europese kaart middenin de Alpen, maar wel een gastvrije en vriendelijke vlek, waar de interlandspelers elkaar helpen bij de wijnoogst en in de Gasthof tot diep in de nacht proosten met journalisten en supporters. Intussen weten ze de afstand tot de Europese top snel te verkleinen, want de nederlagen vallen steeds lager uit. Helaas zijn de wedstrijdverslagen in het boek nogal uitgesponnen en sommige interviews met spelers uitgesproken saai, maar daardoor groeien de persoonlijke avonturen van Connelly in het ministaatje tot hilarische proporties uit. Hij kijkt niet neer op zijn omgeving en mag zichzelf graag belachelijk maken. Dankzij het beperkte grondgebied van het staatje komt hij regelmatig dezelfde mensen tegen, die langzamerhand uitgroeien tot romanfiguren.Dat maakt het lezen van Stamping Grounds tot een aangenaam tijdsverdrijf. If there's one book you'd ever read about Liechtenstein, this so much definitely is the one! Why would an Englishman follow a team which lost all games in the World Cup Qualifying scoring no goals in the process? Easy! Liechtenstein is a very easy to like! Their left-back needs to ask his principal to get some days of his teaching duties to travel to international matches. Their sweeeper cannot travel to play Spain because he needs to care for his wine grapes just before harvesting. And the players meet casually at the town pub. And Liechtenstein is a wonderful place, too. The contrasts are staggering and the people are perhaps more peculiar than anywhere else. Perhaps there's just over 30000 of them? Charlie Connelly writes just as entertaining and amusing it took Bill Bryson several years to reach perfection. Yes, I even went there on vacation the summer after I read the book. That's how much I loved the book. Am I sad, or what? nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Charlie Connelly follows the Liechtenstein national football team through their defeat-strewn qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup. Drawn in a group with Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Austria and mighty Spain, it was hard ever to see the principality's part-time players scoring even one goal, never mind adding to its meagre international points total. So what motivates a nation of 30,000 people and eleven villages to keep plugging away despite the inevitability of defeat? Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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