Who knew such a handy list of sweet soccer books existed?
I've read Fever Pitch, Bloody Confused and How Soccer Explains the World. I'd love to work my way through these other books in time. For now, I have immediately added Brilliant Orange, Among the Thugs and Inverted Pyramid to my "to read" list.
What are people's favorite soccer books?
From this list I've read: Bloody Confused, The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, How Soccer Explains the World, and Fever Pitch. I currently have The Ball is Round in my possession, but I have not made a ton of progress on that one.
ReplyDeleteI recommend any of the ones that I have read - they are all quality for different reasons.
I've read How Soccer Explains the World and particulary enjoyed the chapters on Celtic/Rangers and Barca/Real. I also read Fever Pitch and laughed several times. But in the end, he was just talking about a bunch of Gooners.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Dad has any of those old coaching books in the basements. I bet there's a bunch of dudes with long hair and very short shorts in the pictures.
I only had one reading book and that was about a World Cup, I think the 84 Cup but I cannot find it.
ReplyDeleteI found two books in the basement library, Winning Soccer by Al Miller (a forgettable tome written to exploit the absence of books in the 70's) and Coaching Modern Soccer-Defense by Eric Batty. I think the Batty book is the best book I read on defensive soccer tactics and drills. His other book Coaching Modern Soccer-Attack served as kindling for a fire many years ago.
I also must have some others lying around and if I do I will mention them. I know I had the USSF Training manual from the 70's/80's and a book by the then coach of the Penn State team a wonderful book of drills and tactics on offensive soccer.
It was fun to buy these books at the time, before Amazon because you had to buy them directly from the publishers.