Jamie Trecker's book is great reading. I highly recommend it.

A note about the reviews on Amazon and similar sites: Ignore the bad reviews that have anything to do with Trecker's criticism of American soccer organizations. First, true football nuts agree: there are many problems with the way Americans are encouraged to view the sport and any organization that cultivates nonsense about the sport should be held in contempt. Many Americans believe soccer is an activity, rather than a sport, a thing that kids do and that all kids can do in order to feel good about themselves and treated fairly in competition. FUCKING NONSENSE. Rightly, imo, Trecker has been highly critical and sharply provocative regarding Major League Soccer and the American Youth Soccer Organization.

Anyway, if you are critical of youth soccer in the United States, you'll soon find thousands of soccer moms and dads from the sparkling suburban set ready to wage a campaign against anything you do. That's the source of the majority of the negative reviews.

The bottom line: Trecker is a talented writer who loves the sport. He can entertain you if you're a long time fan. In addition, he provides citations and biblographies. SO, if you're a new acolyte to the sport, you're never lost.

As with all true soccer fans, who know the sport, Trecker can sound contrary to himself. We are a strange bunch, footy fans. But we all view soccer as a mirror, an extension, of life with all its paradoxes.

Anyway...thoroughly pleased with this book. I was upset when I finished. ( )

Another in a long list of soccer books that I've read. I'm not a big fan of Trecker himself, but I loved this book because it was up front and blunt about a lot of soccer stuff. It's mostly for the casual fan, but that's okay. ( )

I had this book recommended to me as a guide to finding out more about soccer. If you don't know anything about soccer, you'll find yourself wishing that the author had explained more of the basics, but this was still a fun read. ( )