Love and Blood: At the World Cup with the Footballers, Fans, and Freaks

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.

Author: Jamie Trecker
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 10/01/2007
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.56lbs
Size: 8.02h x 5.34w x 0.65d
ISBN: 9780156030984

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 08/27/2007 pg. 71
Booklist 09/01/2007 pg. 45
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2007 pg. 916

About the Author
Trecker, Jamie: -

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.