Love and Blood: At the World Cup with the Footballers, Fans, and Freaks

Every four years the thirty-two-team, sixty-four-game World Cup captivates the planet's populace for a month. Work absenteeism skyrockets. Political campaigns grind to a halt. Fans mortgage their houses to buy tickets. And teams employ every means possible--even consulting witch doctors and astrologers--in their quest for national glory.

Veteran soccer commentator Jamie Trecker traveled to Germany for FIFA World Cup 2006. Here, reported from the restaurants, trains, bars, town squares, hostels, press boxes, and brothels, is his unvarnished account of the games and parties, great plays and fistfights, gossip and tacky souvenirs that turn the largest sporting event on earth into a true world bazaar. With equal measures insight and irreverence, Trecker captures the passion, politics, controversies, and economics that make soccer a reflection of the world.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Published: 10/01/2007
ISBN: 9780156030984
Pages: 272
Weight: 0.56lbs
Size: 8.02h x 5.34w x 0.65d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 08/27/2007 pg. 71
Booklist 09/01/2007 pg. 45
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2007 pg. 916