SOCCER LOVERS BOOK REVIEW: The Language of the Game – How to Understand Soccer
Understand the magic of the world’s most played sport through the eyes of Laurent Dubois.
Published by Basic Books
Written by Laurent Dubois, The Language of the Game: How to Understand Soccer is a great read for anyone who loves the beautiful game or knows someone who does. Understand the magic of the world’s most played sport through the eyes of Laurent Dubois.
The Language of the Game: How to Understand Soccer in simple terms explains the culture of soccer, which is more than a sport.
A game like no other, soccer deserves Dubois high praise with his enthusiastic and passionate prose as he describes the highs (and lows) of the World Cup and pickup games with the same fervor.
Soccer lovers once were few in the USA but as the years have passed, Americans have awoken with the growing passion for a game that is shared without borders. Soccer is a game that can be played throughout a person’s lifetime, from when a kid can first walk and kick a ball until the crevasses of old age. The joy of soccer is even shared by people of all disabilities and this sport truly has a language all of its own.
The Language of the Game: How to Understand Soccer also includes women’s soccer — which is all too often left out of today’s books on soccer. From Maradona and Cruyff to The Laws of The Game, this book touches on many famous names and aspects of soccer.
The book opens with the question, “What is soccer?” In the most simple terms, Dubois explains that it is just a game that is played on a rectangle, bracketed by two goals, one at either end.
But in reality, Dubois explains that soccer is really about possibility.
Historian and soccer scholar Dubois explains how the soccer’s low scores, relentless motion, endless armchair referees and coaches and ‘spectacular individual performances combine to turn each match into a unique and unpredictable story.”
It is soccer’s unpredictability that makes it such a great game.
And in The Language of the Game: How to Understand Soccer, Dubois helps all of us understand the beloved game better.
One of my favorite lines is:
“In many respects, the best referees can hope for is relative invisibility.”
Celebrate the beauty of soccer and read The Language of the Game: How to Understand Soccer.
Available on AMAZON
