The Game of Their Lives

Rating:
Summary: More than just the game!
Review: I can understand those who want more about the soccer than the team members. But consider that this book isn't just about the upset, it's about the people who made it happen. It's as much about the social history of the team as anything else. Could the author have spent more time following up reserves and scouring the globe for accounts of the game? Probably.

But I think the story would suffer for that. Could someone write a focused, technical account of the game and the 1950 World Cup? Probably. But the social and personal contexts enrich the story. It could stand to be a little longer, and perhaps fleshing out the other team members would help in that regard. But what there is of this book is more interesting because we're given background.

Rating:
Summary: Not Many Options
Review: I would recommend this book a US soccer fan that may only know the final score for this historic game. This book does describe the state of US soccer in the 50's. For example, some people may not be aware that there is a national club championship open to all US teams (the National Challenge Cup, today this cup tournament is called the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup). This team was made up of players that came from some of the teams that won the cup such as Simpkins-Ford (1948 & 1950 with Gino Pariano, Charlie Colombo, Frank Borghi, and Frank Wallace) or New York Brookhattan (1945 Joe Gaetjens team). For the die hard soccer fan this book needs more details on how this team won its spot in the World Cup. Also, there really is not enough detail on the game itself, which may be a result of the dearth of information even at the time (still there is enough there to get your hear pounding and help the reader imagine the excitement of the game). Considering how the English team felt humiliated by result they sure did not want to discuss the game and the US press could hardly care any less. Also, it would be nice to have the perspective of the English players; however, that was not the writer's purpose. This is a story about the men who played the game because they loved it. There needs to be a more detailed treatment of these men and specifically Joseph "Joe" Gaetjens. That being said there is not much out there on the subject and this is still an enjoyable story of perseverance. I hope this book and the upcoming movie bring more people to examine this

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but not the Definitive Story
Review: The US team's 1-0 defeat of England in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, considered the greatest upset in soccer history, is given a somewhat haphazard treatment here by journalist Douglas. Chapters concerning the flow of the game are dwarfed by much longer chapters on the lives of the eleven players and the ethnic neighborhoods they came from. The preponderance of material is about the five who were still alive in early 1990s, when the author was able to interview them. Douglas spends a great deal of time with these men, devoting great swathes of the book to their reminisces about the neighborhoods in St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Massachusetts they came from and how those neighborhoods have declined in recent decades.

While the stories of men who clearly played for the love of the game is sort of interesting, there's not enough about how the team of amateurs and semi-pros was cobbled together and managed to advance to the World Cup. Douglas's description of the flow of the game is able enough, but the analysis is somewhat hazy. Too much-from the miracle US goal, to England's inexplicable inability to finish-is left hazy and unexplained. Interviews with surviving English players might have added a great deal. Clearly, the definitive book on the 1950 upset has yet to be written.