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rosseroo's review
2.0
I tend to pick up almost any book about soccer I come across at the library, and I have no one but my indiscriminate self to blame when one of these fails to satisfy. Make no mistake, as a stylist and scene-setting, Agovino is a good writer, which makes sense, since he's made his living as a journalist. The story he sets out to tell is of his thirty-year journey as a soccer fan in America, starting with an all-star game in 1982 at Giants Stadium. Through it, one can more or less chart the ups and downs of the sport in the US, but the focus always remains on his personal experience and story. As a result, one gets a lot of detailing of specific game-day experiences, both in the US and overseas -- which I ultimately found somewhat tiresome. The overall tone is an uneasy attempt to balance early-adopter enthusiasm with magnanimity toward newcomers to the sport. Ultimately, my real issue with the book is that it is an unabashed memoir, and I almost never like memoirs -- I'm just not that interested in reading about other people's experiences. I'm sure others will find it fascinating -- I'm thinking especially of readers from countries where the game is far more engrained in the national culture. The comparison to the American experience would likely be quite interesting -- but for the general American reader who is a soccer fan, I'd suggest dipping into the early pages to see if it hooks you.
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