Soccer's Most Wanted™

Author: John Snyder
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1612340504
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Book Description
Ernie Brandts of the Netherlands scored a goal for each team and injured his own goalkeeper in a 1978 World Cup match against Italy. Liverpool’s Robbie Fowler was suspended for four games and fined for pretending to snort the white chalk endline while celebrating a goal. In 1970, after El Salvador defeated Honduras in a World Cup qualifying match, the two countries severed diplomatic relations, and a four-day “Soccer War” broke out, in which more than 10,000 people died. A 1995 match in South Africa between the host Moroka Swallows and the Qwa Qwa Stars was delayed after the visiting team accused the host of using magical powers against them. Soccer's Most Wanted™ features the most outrageous players, the oddest injuries, the strangest matches, the most fantastic finishes, the greatest champions, and the most inept teams. In short, it covers the best and worst moments in the history of world soccer. Die-hard fans as well as newcomers to the sport will enjoy this irreverent guide to soccer trivia.

Soccer's Most Wanted™ II

Author: Jeff Carlisle
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1597971936
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 287

Book Description
Soccer is the world’s game, more popular than any other sport. Fans fill stadia, and players strive to perform at the highest levels for them. Soccer’s Most Wanted™ II presents more of the best and brightest, funniest and freakiest, and the highs and lows of soccer. It highlights the crazy incidents and interesting bits of trivia that have helped make soccer (football to the rest of the globe) the most-watched sport on the planet. Everyone remembers the World Cup winners, but what about the best teams who fell just short? And what about the great players who never got to appear on the world stage? Then there is the burgeoning American game, thanks to the steady progress of Major League Soccer and the strides made by the country’s respective national teams. Jeff Carlisle presents all that and more in fifty top-ten lists chock full of entertaining stories. He covers strange injuries, bizarre bookings, and some of the more colorful feuds worldwide. He discusses the greatest players to travel from the MLS to overseas and lambastes the biggest flops who came to MLS assuming glory and fell flat on their faces. He covers European leagues and players too, from the EPL to Serie A and everything in between. Through it all he presents the game as only a true follower can, with an expertise gained through years of coverage. Soccer’s Most Wanted™ II brings the beautiful game to life!

The United States of Soccer

Author: Phil West
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1468314130
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Book Description
“A brisk and informative look at Major League Soccer’s first twenty years . . . West gives MLS fans a worthy chronicle.” (Booklist). In 1988, FIFA decreed that the 1994 World Cup would be played in the United States – with the condition that the U.S. would start a new professional league. The North American Soccer League had failed just four years prior, and the prospects of launching a new league for Americans, who didn’t share the rest of the world’s love for soccer, were both exciting and daunting. The United States of Soccer is the engaging history of Major League Soccer’s bootstrap origins prior to its 1996 launch, its near-demise in the early 2000s, and its surprising resilience and growth as it won recognition from soccer fans around the world. The book also explores the origin of MLS’s superfans who set the tone within MLS stadiums and defining what it is to be a North American soccer fan. Phil West chronicles those fans’ voices – intermingled with league officials, former players and coaches, journalists, and newspaper accounts – to detail MLS’s remarkable journey.

The World Series' Most Wanted

Author: John Snyder
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1612340520
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 382

Book Description
Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first World Series with The World Series Most Wanted M/i>. You'll find fascinating facts, oddball tales, and record-breaking achievements from that initial World Series between the Boston Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates all the way up to the 2003 World Series. The next in a long line of vaunted Most Wanted books from Potomac. THE The World Series Most Wanted tells the tale of October glory and heartbreak, of heroes and goats, and of the thin line between success and failure on baseball's grandest stage. With a hopping sixty top-ten lists.

The Olympic's Most Wanted

Author: Floyd Conner
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1597973971
Category : Olympics
Languages : en
Pages : 307

Book Description
Dive into amusing Olympic moments both high and low

Basketball's Most Wanted™

Author: Floyd Conner
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1597973998
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 295

Book Description
All-American George Glamack was known as the "Blind Bomber" because his eyesight was so poor that he couldn’t see the basket. Bobby Bailey once fouled out of a game in three minutes. The first professional basketball player, Fred Cooper, earned sixteen dollars per game. Swedish player Mats Wermelin scored all 272 points in a game. Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach punched out the owner of the St. Louis Hawks prior to a game. Dennis Rodman dressed like a bride for his book signing. Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 100 points in an NBA game, claimed to have had 20,000 lovers. The 1936 Olympic basketball gold medal game was played on a muddy court during a driving rainstorm. Former vice president Al Gore played college basketball at Harvard. Basketball's Most Wanted™ chronicles 700 of the most outlandish players, coaches, and fans in basketball history. Its seventy lists describe in humorous detail basketball’s top-ten worst shooters, strangest plays, bizarre nicknames, politicians who played, little-known records, unlikely NBA teams, and more.

Long-Range Goals

Author: Beau Dure
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1597979929
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 424

Book Description
All over the world, soccer is known as "the Beautiful Game" and is the most popular sport. But in the United States, professional soccer still has a hard time catching on. It has had some successes here. The American Soccer League of the 1920s, Pélé and other international stars in the North American Soccer League's glamorous 1970s, the indoor soccer phenomenon of the 1980s, and the U.S. women's win in the Women's World Cup of 1999 all hinted that the American public is ready to embrace pro soccer. In its short history, Major League Soccer (MLS) has survived and even started to thrive, drawing steady crowds and loyal fans. In Long-Range Goals, Beau Dure profiles teams and players, including D.C. United, the Los Angeles Galaxy, Landon Donovan, Freddy Adu, and Coach Bruce Arena, who are all vital to MLS. Some of the triumphs include an expansion of the league and its ownership group, the contribution of MLS players to a strong U.S. World Cup showing in 2002, and the construction of soccer stadiums nationwide. At the same time, MLS has occasionally stumbled, during costly legal battles with players and seeing two teams fold, but its investors have remained strong, figured out how to make money, and support the league. From the league's formation in 1993 to the David Beckham era, this book reveals all the action on and off the pitch: the politics, the lawsuits, the management of its teams, and the savvy business deals that helped MLS rebound. It also revels in the big personalities of its stars, the grace of its utility players, and the obstacles the league faces in meeting its long-range goals.

Why Soccer Matters

Author: Pelé
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0451468759
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
Pelé—legendary footballer and humanitarian—explores the sport’s recent history and shares his most inspiring experiences, heartwarming stories, and hard-won wisdom. “I know in my heart that soccer was good to me, and great to the world....I saw, time and again, how the sport improved countless millions of lives, both on and off the field. For me, at least, that’s why soccer matters.” The world’s most popular sport goes by many names—soccer, football, the beautiful game—but fans have always agreed on one thing: The greatest player of all time was Pelé. Before Messi, before Ronaldo, before Beckham, Pelé had a stunning twenty-year career, where he was heralded as an international treasure. His accomplishments on the field proved to be pure magic: an unprecedented three World Cup championships and the all-time scoring record, with 1,283 goals. Since retiring, he has traveled the world as soccer’s global ambassador, relentlessly promoting the positive ways soccer can transform young men and women, struggling communities, even entire nations. This is Pelé’s legacy, his way of passing on everything he’s learned and inspiring a new generation. In Why Soccer Matters, Pelé details his ambitious goals for the future of the sport and, by extension, the world.

Italy's Most Wanted™

Author: Luciano Mangiafico
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1612340466
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 364

Book Description
Visit the Old Country!

Soccer Against the Enemy

Author: Simon Kuper
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 0786736356
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
Soccer is much more than just the most popular game in the world. It is a matter of life and death for millions around the world, an international lingua franca. Simon Kuper traveled to twenty-two countries to discover the sometimes bizarre effect soccer can have on politics and culture. At the same time he tried to discover what makes different countries play a simple game so differently. Kuper meets a remarkable variety of fans along the way, from the East Berliner persecuted by the Stasi for supporting his local team, to the Argentine general with his own views on tactics. He also illuminates the frightening intersection between soccer and politics, particularly in the wake of the attacks of 9-11, where soccer is obsessed over by the likes of Osama bin Laden. The result is one of the world's most acclaimed books on the game, and an astonishing study of soccer and its place in the world.