Overview
It is biggest sporting event in the world, watched by billions, in a game played on every scrap of land on the planet. It is every boy's dream to win it. Yet just seven countries, from only two continents, ever have. Why? And, most importantly, how? How to Win the World Cup takes apart all the previous 18 editions of football's pre-eminent competition to look at the sporting DNA as well as the vital statistics of winning teams. It debunks myths and turns accepted truths on their heads in search of the essence of victory. Home advantage helps, surely? Only once in the past three decades. Well, the best team wins, then; it's only seven matches, after all. Not since Brazil in 1970 - and don't ask a Dutchman. By going beyond tactics and teams to examine factors as diverse as team spirit and the choice of captain, media hype and public expectation, the political climate and even the weather (luck, penalties and cheating play a part too, of course), Graham McColl has produced a World Cup book unlike any to have gone before it. And at the end of the day, he looks at what the 32 nations who have qualified for South Africa 2010 are bringing to the table, and if they have what it takes. Do England have the recipe for success? Can they win the World Cup, for the first time in 44 years? You read it here first.
Full Product Details
Author: Graham McColl (Author)
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
Imprint: Bantam Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.30cm
, Length: 23.40cm
Weight: 0.440kg
ISBN: 9780593066225
ISBN 10: 0593066227
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 29 April 2010
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print
Availability: Out of stock
Reviews
An entertaining look back through World Cup history that passes itself off as an instruction manual for managers hoping to bring home the big one... McColl lays out what's required and unearths a number of diverting stories that this particular World Cup anorak had never come across before. This will help pass the time nicely as you wait for Switzerland v Honduras to kick off -- Jonathan O'Brien When Saturday Comes 20100601 Covers the ground with good humour Time Out 20100610
An entertaining look back through World Cup history that passes itself off as an instruction manual for managers hoping to bring home the big one... McColl lays out what's required and unearths a number of diverting stories that this particular World Cup anorak had never come across before. This will help pass the time nicely as you wait for Switzerland v Honduras to kick off -- Jonathan O'Brien * When Saturday Comes * Covers the ground with good humour * Time Out *
Author Information
Graham McColl is a writer and journalist whose work regularly appears in The Times, Four Four Two and When Saturday Comes. His many books include The Official Biography of Celtic, United We Stand and '78: How a Nation Lost the World Cup.
