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Why England Lose & Other Curious Football Phenomena Explained (2009)

by Simon Kuper(Favorite Author)

3.89 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0007301111 (ISBN13: 9780007301119)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

HarperSport

review 1: This is Moneyball + Freakonomics applied to soccer - a good book to read during the World Cup. Overall interesting, though I skimmed some of the math and models because it was making my eyes glaze over. I don't agree with the authors' conclusions about everything though.Large parts of this book felt like they were written to make England feel better about having a losing national team. "The tough Premier League takes too much energy from all their players" - possibly true. "England doesn't recruit from their middle class" - does any country? They list only nine players from other countries who stayed in school "beyond age 16," which doesn't convince me. Most of Bayern Munich's players didn't finish high school either. Does England have an unusually small working cla... moress compared to other countries? If it does, they don't mention it. And then in later chapters, they compare the entire population of England with the entire populations of other countries when calculating how good their teams should be. If they really believed their former point, why weren't they comparing the sizes of working classes?The chapter on the spread of soccer by the British Empire was also very British-centric. It made it sound like it was a good thing that the British imposed their culture and their sports on their colonies, or like the other countries wanted to learn soccer because they wanted to imitate British gentlemen. The stupid Americans, on the other hand, didn't export their football sport, so that's why only America plays football. The book also asserts that American suburban moms like their kids to play soccer because there aren't professional soccer leagues with players behaving badly all over the news. I really doubt that - I think it's just cheaper to outfit kids for soccer than for football or ice hockey.The bit about clubs shooting themselves in the foot by not helping their foreign players relocate was very interesting (my pet theory is that the US team isn't better because few Americans want to move to Europe, so our best soccer players stop themselves from playing at the highest levels. Witness Landon Donovan. Europeans are more open to the idea of moving to another country.) The book says it's stupid to think that just because you pay somebody lots of money, he will automatically adjust to a new country, and culture, and language. Okay, clearly it would be better for the players if the clubs hired relocation consultants, but honestly, don't the players make enough money that they can hire their own relocation consultants? Large amounts of money solve most problems.Also, in the section on transfers the book says that older players, Brazilians, winners of recent World Cups, and center forwards are overvalued, and goalies are undervalued. Then in the chapter on racism, it says that players are paid what they are worth (except if they are black and the league is racist). I can see there being equal numbers of black and white center forwards and goalies, but it still seems like they should have mentioned it.It's interesting that most big soccer cities (Manchester, Milan, Munich, Barcelona), are provincial towns that got a large influx of people when they industrialized, and those people cared about soccer, so that's where the big clubs are. (And also interesting that fascist capitals did well in soccer, because the dictators wanted to keep the people happy). But Real Madrid won the Champions League in 98, 00, 02, and Madrid is the capital of Spain, not some backwater town with no other claim to fame than its soccer team. (I'm not even counting Real Madrid's championship in '14 and Chelsea's in '12, because this book was already published). (I didn't think Barcelona was a backwater with no other claim to fame either, but apparently it was an industrial town, so I'll give them that one).Also fun to learn: Soccer tournaments prevent more suicides than they cause, and the vast majority of English soccer fans are not diehard one-club supporters like Nick Hornby of Fever Pitch.
review 2: Thoughts on the Most Interesting Chapters1. The chapter on England losing seems appropriate because Costa Rica inexplicably defeated Andrea Pirlo's Italy this morning, sending England home during the group stage for the first time in my dad's lifetime. My favorite thing about that chapter is that it's a reality check that argues that we attach themes like fate and greatness and destiny to a team's performance when, in reality, the difference between winning and losing a tournament consisting of seven games is miniscule. Kuper and Szymanski argue that we look back on a performance and think "a team that lost was doomed to do so." On the Men in Blazers Boot Room Extra show after England's defeat to Suarezuguay, Rog and Davo exemplified the English predisposition to doom and gloom by modeling the reaction after going down 1-0: We've lost, it's over, and now we can watch Chile. There is an almost spiritual, supernatural view of the events in the game that we connect back to the personality of a country, the pseudo-genetics of a team's (and it's nation's) makeup as it regards grit and winning and losing and giving up/not giving up. That country is a person, a century old at most (in soccer timelines), and that person's behavior is based on all that person's previous behavior. The truth is, if Wayne Rooney's free kick is a foot lower, his header is six inches lower, and his left footed shot is directed anywhere but where it was, England have a hat trick hero on their hands, and Luis Suarez is no longer the man who demolished the Three Lions' hopes of moving on, despite nothing about his own personal performance changing. I think the reason I like books like Soccernomics is that they remind me that any subject, even ones that seem supernatural and emotional, can be approached intelligently to break down what we think (or feel) is happening versus what is actually happening.2. I loved the penalty kick chapter because I'm fascinated by Game Theory. Poor John Terry. I don't even like him, or Chelsea, but I still feel bad that he slipped. When Drogba stepped up for his penalty against Bayern to clinch the Champions League title, I told Janice, "He's going to make this penalty and they're going to win." He did. I attached story to what is essentially a guessing game. If only Jens Lehmann was their with notes, Bayern would be the only team to retain the trophy with the big ears. Such small things make such big differences in how we view players, teams (both over individual seasons and over the long range of history as we compile all their successes and failures into a narrative), and specific games.3. I found the periphery chapter intriguing because I love the idea of the US eventually producing a player as good as Gareth Bale, who comes from tiny Wales. I love the idea of a World Cup that features as many world class players from Ghana or Japan or Iran as from Brazil, Germany, or Argentina. I'm all for the continued globalization of soccer. less

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Reviews (see all)

luvrain

What is the most effective type of corner kick? Is it true that rather than offering disappointing results in international soccer tournaments such as the World Cup, the English national team has done much better than the data predict? Is it possible that the Spanish and German national teams are overachievers as well? Why will the United States become a world soccer power?These are kinds of questions this book answers. With Michael Lewis’s Moneyball as inspiration and Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane a frequent commentor, the authors extract some counterintuitive insights concerning many facets of soccer: as a game and as a business. The authors, a soccer journalist and a sports economist, delve deep into the world of data that explores why soccer teams (especially in England) will never make a profit, nor should they; why the presence of foreign players in England’s Premier League improved the quality of English players even though there are far fewer English players in the Premier League; when it is time to let go of players regardless of their recent successes; when to transfer players to get the most money out of the club being transferred to; why western European national and club leagues dominate; how many goals is it worth to the home team for the World Cup; why many beliefs about effective tactics are plain wrong; how more effective tactics spread around the globe; and much more. Slow in spots, entertaining in many others, this book, the second edition released in time for the World Cup, will inform both the serious and casual soccer fan. The book could have used another round of editing to make it more readable in some sections, but even so much of it is fascinating.

zoarif

After a quite promising start in the chapters considering statistics coming of age in the interpretation of football tactics, performance and the further shaping of decisions on transfers, deployment of players and plays, this book gradually becomes boring as it focuses on things such as which country has the most devoted football fans or how many people watch football on TV etc.A number of arguments are rather stretched to extremes that go beyond statistical rigour just to make the points appear more impressive. Overall, quite original (especially considering it was first published more than 5 years ago) but it grows flat in the end and a great number of topics that have to do with fandom are rather unequal compared to the opening parts dealing with the game itself.

matt

I would argue some of the statistics in the book but great job by one of my favorite writers..

noah

This was very informative about soccer and empire building.

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