Men in Blazers Present Encyclopedia Blazertannica: A Suboptimal Guide to Soccer,

Description: Men in Blazers Present Encyclopedia Blazertannica by Roger Bennett, Michael Davies "Ghostwritten by Zlatan*. *Not really (we had to add this asterisk for legal reasons"--Title page. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description The essential guide to world soccer—the history, the players, the fan culture—from the phenomenally popular duo from NBC Sports.The Men in Blazers are two English-born, soccer-obsessed broadcasters who have savored the dizzying growth of the game along with millions of Americans. Now they immerse fans and novices alike in the history and culture of the worlds game with Encyclopedia Blazertannica. Examining fan culture, from the famous stadium chants to the tactical variations of scarf tying, exploring the complex physics and ethics of both celebratory knee slides and fights between players, reliving the careers of legendary players, classic matches, and colorful World Cup history, and sharing a deep appreciation for the athletic brilliance and ill-judged neck tattoos that dominate the sport, this indispensable tome gives readers a front-row seat to all the action of football madness.A New York Times Bestseller! Author Biography ROGER BENNETT was born in Liverpool and moved to the United States after university, under the thrall of Ferris Bueller, Hart to Hart, and Diffrent Strokes. A writer, broadcaster, and filmmaker, Bennett began at ESPN and moved with Men in Blazers to NBC Sports to become the go-to interviewer for the biggest names in soccer, making films with the likes of Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. MICHAEL DAVIES was born in London and educated in Scotland and the United States. For twenty-eight years he has worked as a television executive and multiple Emmy Award winning producer of many shows, including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Davies started writing for ESPN.com in 2002 before partnering with Bennett on Men in Blazers in 2010. In addition to their podcast and television show on NBC Sports, the duo have a weekly show built into the phenomenally popular EA Sports FIFA game, and have developed a large live following. Excerpt from Book Introduction Hail! Unfortunate Accidental Readers and Great Friends of the Pod. The volume you have in your hands was designed to be many things: 1. The final nail in the coffin of the long-floundering publishing industry. 2. Living proof that it is possible to write a worse book than Does God Love Michaels Two Daddies? by Sheila K. Butt. 3. An ill-advised attempt to journey into the inky dark, unexplored depths of the Men in Blazers universe, every detail of which we have created hand in hand with our masochistically loyal listeners over the past eight years, pod by pod, show by show, tweet by suboptimal tweet. To achieve the first two objectives, we chose to focus solely on the third. This task demanded we wallow in the history and culture of football, the sport we both love. With its pantheon of heroes and villains, moments of glorious ecstasy and searing despair, dodgy haircuts and surplus neck tattoos, it has empowered us to experience emotions other people seem to feel in real life, to which we are both inured. No telenovela could provide soapier story lines to keep us hooked like football . . . a game with plot points that unfurl live without a safety net, as the whole world watches. *** Witnessing the game we love grow and grow in America, the nation that we love, has been the thrill of our lifetimes. We both arrived on these shores as innocents, equipped with full heads of our own hair, in the early 1990s. Back then soccer had seemingly forever been cast as Americas "Sport of the Future," its recent past little more than a collection of false dawns and hyperbolic predictions that it was about to become the Next Big Thing. We well remember the day when FIFA announced its intention to host the 1994 World Cup in the US, prompting panicked former-AFL-quarterback-turned-US-representative Jack Kemp to declare on the floor of Congress: "I think it is important for all those young men out there who someday hope to play real football where you throw it and kick it and run with it and put it in your hands a distinction should be made that football is democratic capitalism whereas soccer is a European socialist sport." Yet, slow and steady wins the race. We have watched with wonder, World Cup to World Cup, as the games profile has inexorably risen to the point that the sports profile has taken its place alongside seersucker, cheesesteaks, and the collected works of Raymond Carver as a symbol of American freedom and democracy. Indeed, our obsessive love of football and Men in Blazers very existence has been possible only because it was powered and reinforced by that surging rise of interest, as well as by the fact that you allow bald men on television in the United States. The question is often asked as to why, season to season, week to week, game to game, more and more Americans have fallen under footballs poetic sway. Many theories have been advanced. Just as baseball thrived in "the Golden Age of Radio," and the NFL was the perfect televisual sport, soccers rise has been driven by the Internet in general, and EA Sports FIFA in particular, which have enabled fans in Los Angeles or North Dakota to experience and follow their teams as closely as supporters in Leicester or Newcastle. Also, alcohol. If a gent is in a bar drinking a beer at 7:30 in the morning, society deems him to be an alcoholic. If Liverpool are losing to Bournemouth on a television in that very same bar whilst that afore- mentioned beer is being quaffed, we consider that man an American soccer fan. If we have learned only one thing during our Guinness-stained Men in Blazers odyssey it is this: Never underestimate the extent to which Americans adore an excuse to drink during the daytime. Ultimately, we like to believe footballs American boom has been made possible by a realization that sporting audiences here have made en masse--that when they experience soccer, they might not be watching home runs, end zone dances, or tomahawk dunks. They are glimpsing life itself unfold before their eyes. The legendary Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger once articulated this best when he said, "Football is like real life but in a more condensed way, more intense. At some moments it catches you suddenly and it can be very cruel." As two men, we could not be more different. One of us is an optimistic Londoner who believes everything is possible. The other, a negative Liverpudlian who sees Cossacks lurking behind every door. Yet we are bonded by a mutual understanding that soccer in all of its forms--mens or womens, international or club--as long as it is played by bipeds, is the key to understanding human existence. As George Eliot once said: Art is the nearest thing to life; it is a mode of amplifying experience and extending our contact with our fellow-men beyond the bounds of our personal lot. If you substitute the word "football" for "art" here, it could not be better said. This book, then, is for readers who believe that, or would like to. Fans old or new, young or old, deeply knowledgeable or neophyte. An encyclopedic collection assembled at great loss of life, of the greatest games, most legendary characters, soaring moments, salty chants, and the occasional self-indulgent yet critical detour, that make up everything you need to know about the game. Reading this cover to cover might not improve the way you play the sport, but it will, we hope, make you better human beings, which is arguably, almost as important. Courage. Rog and Davo Argentina: Not to go all Paul Krugman on you, but one of the most admirable things about Argentinas consistency as a world footballing power is that while Germany, Brazil, and Italy all rank among the worlds ten biggest economies (and between them, theyve won 13 of the 20 World Cups) Argentina is the economic outlier. The team that defies the correlation between a nations GDP and their ability to win the big one. Stylistically, Argentine football has patented a long tradition of violent beauty. Their fans crave both the Gambetta, a slaloming style of dribbling run described by the poet Eduardo Galeano as strumming "the ball as if it was a guitar," alongside a cunning guile and physicality that is known as La Nuestra, or "our style of play." Thus, Argentine players are able to undo opponents with clinical pace, or by pinging the ball around their box, but if a groin or kidney presented itself for a good punching along the way, they could be easily persuaded to give it a thunderous jab. Thus their great team of the 1950s were known as the "Angels with Dirty Faces." This is a team who will stop at nothing to win, stooping even to handing opponents spiked water bottles during breaks to drug them in game. When England finally worked out how to beat them in 2002, thanks to a penalty won by a flopping from Michael Owen, the Argentine media merely nodded their approval at his deceit and willingness to cheat to win. "THEYVE LEARNED!" was one headline. Yet, Argentina have always been far more than Al Davis-era Oakland Raiders. Their team always had to be both admired and feared due to their production line of visionary, creative playmakers, El Diez, "The Ten": Juan Rom Details ISBN1101875984 Author Michael Davies Pages 224 Language English Year 2018 ISBN-10 1101875984 ISBN-13 9781101875988 Format Hardcover Publication Date 2018-05-15 Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2018-05-15 NZ Release Date 2018-05-15 US Release Date 2018-05-15 UK Release Date 2018-05-15 Place of Publication New York Illustrations 364 ILL IN TEXT; ENDPAPERS Publisher Alfred A. Knopf Imprint Alfred A. Knopf Subtitle A Suboptimal Guide to Soccer, Americas "Sport of the Future" Since 1972 DEWEY 796.334 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:141730950;

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