"An excellent work of sports journalism"

Transgress points the way

One of my favourite reviews of Rock n Roll Soccer so far was published this weekend by Transgress Magazine, and not just because of the above quote. The reviewer really 'got' the book and what it's attempting to say. In his words:

"Plenderleith documents the folly, effrontery and ultimate failure of the NASL—an impressively thorough tome that benefits from solid research and a witty outsider’s perspective (though now living in America, Plenderleith is British and brings a European’s passion and insight to football writing).

"One of Plenderleith’s great accomplishments in this book is his ability to zoom in and out of the action while keeping the reader engaged. This is not an easy task. At times, he’ll be recounting the exaggerated drug- and drink-fueled antics of over-the-hill international stars and young Americans performing in a flamboyant, fly-by-night federation that defied, in equal measure, rules, tradition and, ahem, sound business practice.

"Then Plenderleith will step back and establish the international and cultural context within which the NASL was operating. At first, the international audience mocked the upstart Americans, and FIFA pushed back against the young league that was tinkering with tradition.

"But as the NASL achieved early success, the world took notice. While it didn’t reinvent the sport, the outlaw league reinvigorated it by making it a fan-friendly experience and drove rule changes that increased substitutions and decreased back passes.

"The model, though exciting, was as unsustainable as that alcohol-fueled borderline relationship you had in college. The peaks were unforgettable, but the valleys unbearable. Sure enough, the NASL folded following the 1984 season.

"It was an experiment and experience that was thoroughly American, and though the league didn’t last, it left a lasting impression on the game and paved the way for MLS success.

"Rock ‘n’ Roll Soccer is an excellent work of sports journalism and, regardless of whether you follow football or futbol (or both), it is worthy of any fan’s bookshelf." 

Independent on Sunday: 'Book of the Week'

IoS: clearly a paper of
 taste and distinction

Not much more to add to that. The Independent on Sunday sports section on September 21 named Rock n Roll Soccer as its Book of the Week, and praised it as a "compendious but vividly entertaining history of the League". They are so right.

Sunday Mirror review: three errors in 47 words

The Sunday Mirror did me the immense favour of reviewing Rock n Roll Soccer this past weekend. It was an astonishing achievement. Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but in the space of just 47 words, the review not only failed to even remotely convey what the book is about, but also managed to make three gross factual errors (or five, if you take into account that one of the errors is tripartite). It also made a grammatical error and a terminology error. That’s an impressive rate of around one mistake every seven words.

Here’s the review in full:

“A nostalgic trip through the early years of the North American Soccer League, the harbinger for what we now know as the lucrative MLS. Its struggle to stay afloat and be accepted by FIFA is fascinatingly explained, with cameos from legends Pele, George Best and Bobby Moore.”  

Mirror, Mirror, on the ball...

Error one: it’s not a trip through “the early years” of the NASL. In fact “the early years” only make up about one tenth of the book. It’s an account of all 17 years of the NASL.

Error two (discounting the following grammatical error - you can only be “a harbinger of” something, not “a harbinger for”; and Major League Soccer is known as “MLS”, not “the MLS”): MLS is not “lucrative”, it is a league that prides itself on its attempts to be financially stable, having learned from the mistakes of the NASL. It has been lucrative for David Beckham, and it may well one day become lucrative for its current owners, but that’s all a long way off – many of its teams have only just started making modest profits, many others still run at a loss.

Error three (and errors four and five): Pele, George Best and Bobby Moore played “cameos” in the NASL? You mean, they showed up, played one game and then left again? Or does the writer (and his sub-editor, and his editor) not actually have a flying clue what a cameo is? Best played for seven seasons in the NASL, Pele for three (bringing it instant world coverage and prompting hundreds more players to follow), and Bobby Moore for two.  

Apart from that, the review’s spot on. Indeed, I am absolutely convinced that the reviewer read the book from cover to cover. Thank you, Sunday Mirror – your review is a journalistic triumph. I have no doubt at all that the rest of the paper is as scrupulously accurate as this towering two-sentence book review. 

Interview at This Is Cosmos Country

Cesar Diaz at This Is Cosmos Country interviewed me this week about the book, and here are the resultant words. I must say that I like the idea of him reading the book while sitting in an actual stadium.

Here are a couple of sample answers:

What was more enjoyable, the research or the interviews?

My book, watching the game (pic: Cesar Diaz)

Both. I loved the research aspect – leafing through countless old soccer magazines and books that had been in my cupboards for years, and finally being able to say to my wife, “See! I told you they’d be useful some day.” I spent a lot of time in the magnificent Library of Congress in Washington DC, and if they’d only had beds there and an all-night bar I would probably have moved in.

The interviews were great fun, too – almost everyone I contacted was happy to talk about a period that we all felt had been neglected by soccer history. Some of the former players would still be talking now if I hadn’t called time on them – just wonderful blokes who were willing to give up their time to a hack they didn’t know from Adam.

What was it like to interact with Rodney Marsh?

Rodney was one of the first people to agree to an interview, because he understood straight away what the book was about, and why it needed to be written. He’s not only funny, but a very astute analyst, so he gave me lots of material, and then later agreed to write the foreword.

Needless to say, he was one of those players that I idolised as a boy growing up in England in the 1970s – full of character and flair, and always smiling. It’s amazing what a difference that makes to kids watching the game, a smile. I really wish we could see more of that in the game – from players, coaches and fans alike.

Daily Express on RnR Soccer: "Hugely entertaining"

"I don't normally..." begins a three-paragraph mention of Rock n Roll Soccer by columnist Fergus Kelly in yesterday's Daily Express. Well, I don't normally read anything in the Daily Express, because just a glance at its daily expression of alarmist xenophobia usually makes me weep copious salty tears at The Human Condition. But I'm prepared to make an exception for Mr. Kelly, who sounds more like he should be writing for When Saturday Comes. Perhaps the Express pays better. Here's what he had to say:

Okay, just this once...

I don't normally plug books here but the one I'm currently reading, called Rock'n'Roll Soccer by Ian Plenderleith, is a hugely entertaining account of the north American Soccer League in its 1970s heyday. Legends such as Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, George Best, Johan Cruyff and Eusebio played together every week as they tried to introduce the game to the US in a glorious but short-lived spectacular of sky-high salaries, showbiz hype and cheerleaders.

The razzmatazz of clubs such as the new York Cosmos and tampa Bay Rowdies contrasted starkly with the grim grounds and hooligan taint of football here at the time, where a cup of Bovril was a luxury and I spent more than one Saturday afternoon dodging chunks of crumbling terracing lobbed by rival supporters over the wire fence of the partitioned Kop at my local club.

The experiment might have fizzled out quickly and even today we don't treat the game there entirely seriously (a bit rich when you compare the USA's World Cup performances to England's). But you can trace today's Premier League pyrotechnics and the £350,000-perweek salary of Manchester United's latest signing Radamel Falcao back to it. Which, depending on how traditional you are, might or might not be regarded as a good thing.

First review: "Fascinating, Enlightening, and Entertaining"

The superb football web site In Bed With Maradona has supplied the first review of Rock n Roll Soccer, out tomorrow. Here's the gist of what they said:

Rock 'N' Roll Soccer is essential reading for enthusiasts of the American game, a group of which we certainly count ourselves a part. Plenderleith hasn't written a chronology of the NASL but the story of the NASL, making his book a fascinating, enlightening and entertaining volume that eschews needless league business details and boardroom minutiae in order to focus on what really made it tick.

As liked by the obviously excellent
 web site In Bed With Maradona

In that sense, the book shares the characteristics of its subject. Where the English game had become bogged down by negative football and an obsession with results, the NASL emerged as a league that was focused on entertainment, and, if Plenderleith's many interviews are anything to go by, a real joy to play in. Under the guidance of Phil Woosnam it became a league famous for glamour, celebrity and innovations that frequently got up FIFA's nose - some better conceived than others.

The league was also fundamentally and eventually fatally flawed, and proved to be fertile ground for storytellers, those fans and observers with an eye for a gripping yarn. Rock 'N' Roll Soccer is a compelling yomp through the tales that really made the NASL unique, from the 35-yard-line shootout tiebreaker to the Minnesota Kicks' legendary tailgates. There's been nothing like the NASL since, and Plenderleith captures it very well indeed.