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Summary: For the Love of Italy and Calcio....
Review: This book captures the essence of Italian life, culture and their dying passion for calcio. Through McGinniss' writing, I felt like I had a front row seat and a backstage pass to the team's entire season. Although McGinniss could get off on wordy tangents, this book kept me laughing and turning the pages wanting to know more and to see how it all worked out.
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Summary: A Beautiful Book
Review: McGinnis shares his awakening to the game of soccer towards the beginning of this book. It was his description of that dawning obsession that drew me in as it somewhat mirrors my own. What I love about this book is the many nice small things. Bits about the players. Insights into the tactics. Background on the cities of Serie B. The general sweep of the story is good, but it's the little moments that make the book. One of my favorites comes when McGinnis serves as referee for an intrasquad game. So much is revealed about the game, about relationships, about honor and about class in such a small space. I didn't find McGinnis participation in the story to be the distraction that some other reviewers did. My one small quibble would be what seems to be an abrupt ending that begs for a postscript. At any rate, I think a non-soccer fan could enjoy this book. I think a soccer fan who enjoys a fine story would love it.
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Summary: Simply the best book I've ever read.
Review: I've read this book three times. It's taught me more about myself and the world than I thought a book could. The fact that the book is about soccer is negligable. Even if you don't give a damn about the game (I didn't, until I read this book) you wont be able to put this book down.
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Summary: Exciting story of a small Italian football team
Review: Joe McGinniss wrote this account of the fortunes of the tiny Castel di Sangro football team in the 1996/97 season in Italy's Serie B. This may sound quite normal to you but, first consider that the town of Castel di Sangro has a tiny population of just 5,000 people and it's based in the poorest region of Italy, Abruzzo. The fact that they managed to get into Serie B is astonishing.The book is seen through the eyes of the author who is invited into the very centre of the team's activities; he talks, eats and spends time with all the players, the manager, directors and owners of the club. Sometimes there is strong friction between the author and the club's officials, but this makes the book all the more compelling! Overall, a superb book which captures the essence of football in Italy very well. Be prepared for many twists and turns in the season, not just on the field of play!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: I loved this book - especially the first two-thirds.
McGinniss writes like a fan would write - we all think that we know more than the coach, and do not hesitate to give our opinion. Certainly, one of the great soccer books written. Few writers have shown so much enthusiasm for their subject. The fact that he picks a small Italian team that has reached new heights of success only makes the book better.
The appearance of match-fixing towards the end is very disappointing, and we can see the author losing his enthusiasm.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable Read
Review: I found the book very easy to read, and ploughed through it quite quickly. The story basically involves an American writer who has a passion for Italian Soccer going over to Italy for a year and following a team of rag-tag part timers who have made the big time against all odds for a season. It is a format which has been done many times before but never in this setting. The characters on the team are what truly makes the story, as with every passing game the book concentrates more on what the players on the team do off the field rather than what they do on it. As can happen when you're retelling a true story there is a disappointing ending, but not disappointing for the reasons you might think. I would recommend you pick up the book if you're in anyway interested in soccer, but don't expect a Pulitzer Prize winning effort here
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Summary: Not Quite a Miracle, But Close Enough
Review: At some early stage of this work, either McGinniss or his publisher must have realized that a straightforward account of an Italian soccer team struggling to hang on at the second highest level of professional play would be a tough sell in the American market, no matter how "miraculous" their arrival at Serie B might have been. So initially this is more of a "fish out of water" tale, with the frequently bumbling and overbearing McGinniss trying to work his way into the good graces of his hosts in the small, remote Italian town where the author's sudden passion for soccer has led him. Soon, however, dramatic events in this sleepy town, many humorous but also some tragic, take over the forefront, and this diary of a season spent with the team quickly becomes engaging and compelling. This is not to say that McGinniss becomes any less bumbling or overbearing, and it reflects a certain kind of courage that he honestly portrays this despite some evidence that later reflection has at long last provided a degree of self-awareness of the frequently inappropriate behavior caused by his new-found fanaticism combined with some pre-existing self-righteousness. But though the author's strong presence is occasionally distracting and his research at times seems a bit rushed, he also provides a fascinating look into a world unknown to most, particularly among an American audience, and I certainly found myself sharing to some degree his emotional bond with the fortunes of the team. While this book would appeal most strongly to those with a passing interest in soccer, I could easily recommend it as well to anyone who enjoys brisk travel narratives or other non-fiction accounts.
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Summary: Highly recommend to anyone looking for a good story
Review: This book was a fun read with interesting characters and an engaging story line. Was McGuinness totally out of line? Sure. Did he upset me with his actions? Certainly. Does that mean this isn't a good book? Certainly not! In fact, McGuinness' actions help make the book even more enjoyable. Just when you thought he couldn't get any worse he did and that simply adds even more to the already wonderful and ubelieveable story. One thing that drove me nuts was his extreme overuse of Italian words and phrases throughout the entire book. Do we really need to have Italian words pop up in every other sentence? Does it really help the story to have entire sentences in Italian? I just learned to skip every Italian sentence I came across and this was by far my biggest complaint with the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Story, Not a Great Book
Review: The events surrounding the Castel Di Sangro soccer team are undeniably compelling; sadly the writing does not always equal the story it tells. The book is quite slow in some sections, and the hyperbolic descriptions of events large and small makes it difficult to distinguish between the two. Additionally, though he admits at the beginning that he knows very little about soccer, McGinniss spends a great deal of time criticizing the tactics of the team's coach and the management of the club. The impression he leaves is one of an overbearing, know-it-all American whose actions are inappropriate to his setting. The sanctimonious tone with which McGinniss concludes the book misses an opportunity to truly discuss the complex issues surrounding the team's final game and instead ends up as a vitriolic rant by the author. It is not that the coach and club do not deserve criticism, but rather that McGinniss seems particularly poorly placed to give it. He forgets that he does not truly understand either the game or the team, to the detriment of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: I am not a soccer fan; I merely play soccer recreationally. I enjoyed the book, it was well-written, exciting and full of emotional turmoil. I felt as though I was on the journey with McGinnis. However, I found irritating McGinniss's personal intrusion in both the events around him and in the book itself. First, his interactions with those people in whose lives he was a guest could be both shameful, embarassing and beyond presumptuous. Second, his failure to intuit the fact that his behavior was at times disgraceful and entirely inappropriate brought an unpleasant element to the book. He displayed a typical American inability to control the force of his personality. Despite my misgivings, I would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys nonfiction.
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