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by Jamie Trecker (Author)
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.Back Jacket
As the streets teemed, all of Germany descended into gleeful chaos. I made my way to my flat, through a pack of Dutch fans wearing bright orange Viking helmets and long lederhosen.Iturned on the TV to see a quarter of a million fans partying at the Brandenburg Gate in what was the biggest mass demonstration Berlin had seen since the fall of the Wall.
I d be kept up all night by fireworks and drunken fans, as some Germans vainly tried to retain some semblance of order.
They would fail. The World Cup was here.
--from Love and Blood
In the summer of 2006, veteran soccer commentator Jamie Trecker traveled along with thousands of fans, footballers, journalists, sex workers, and a spare marching band or two to Germany for the thirty-two-team, sixty-four-game FIFA World Cup. Here, reported from the beer gardens, sausage stands, trains, town squares, press boxes, and porn shoots, is his unvarnished account of the largest event on earth, and a fascinating look into the history of the Cup, soccer in the United States, the millions of dollars at stake in the global sport, and the passion and politics of soccer on the world stage.
Lead soccer columnist for Fox Sports and an analyst for Fox Soccer Channel, JAMIE TRECKER is a contributor to the New York Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as well as the Guardian, the Observer, the Telegraph, and Loaded magazine. He lives in Chicago. "
