From the Publisher
"[D]eserves to be on every young soccer enthusiast's bookshelf. . . . Mesmerizing."—starred, Kirkus Reviews
School Library Journal
01/01/2018
Gr 4–7—Internationally, the World Cup is the most widely viewed sports event, with a viewing audience surpassing that of the Super Bowl and the Olympics. From modest beginnings in 1930, soccer's biggest competition has soared in popularity. Doeden has scored a winning goal with this insightful look at the game's prestigious championship event. Like his earlier book The Super Bowl, this latest is well researched. He discusses the history, appeal, and format of this event, as well as some fundamentals of the game. The chapter on heroics and heartbreaks of past World Cups is quite lengthy and may not resonate well with readers who are not dedicated fans. Men's and women's soccer are covered. True to his engaging style of writing, he presents information with abundant use of appealing photographs and charts. In addition, he addresses in an objective manner controversial issues that have marred the reputation of the sport, most notably the 2015 scandal that rocked the governing body of international soccer. VERDICT Once again, Doeden has demonstrated his sharp skills as a sportswriter. It should not be hard to entice sports fans with this title.—Jeanette Lambert, formerly at Nashville-Davidson County Schools
Kirkus Review
★ 2017-12-11
The story of the World Cup, crown jewel of international soccer.Doeden's very sharp contribution to the vast world of World Cup literature deserves to be on every young soccer enthusiast's bookshelf. The book, pulsing with cracking photographs and archival images, starts at the beginning, with accounts of the first international match (attended by 4,000), between England and Scotland (which won) in 1872; the first international match outside the British Isles in 1902; and the initiation of the World Cup in 1930. Doeden writes with an easy hand, a little feverish when the action is hot, conveying plenty of information with plenty of momentum. He devotes a page to the recent FIFA bribery scandal and another to hooliganism—less-savory parts of the game—and then goes on to recap the classic matches and the introduction of women's soccer to the World Cup. There's lots of captivating material here: Zinedine Zidane's head-butt, Brandi Chastain's brilliant shootout goal in the 1999 final, the unreal "barrage of goals" that ended the 1970 cup, the introduction of African teams in the 1980s, the suspected cheating in the 1982 game that allowed West Germany and Austria to advance if Austria failed to score (they failed to score) and keep Algeria out of the contest. And of course there is Pelé.Mesmerizing. (Nonfiction. 10-16)
