The Italian Job: A Journey to the Heart of Two Great Footballing Cultures
by Gianluca Vialli, Gabriele Marcotti
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Book Summary Information
Author: Gabriele Marcotti, Gianluca VialliEdition: Paperback
Published: 2007-09-28
ISBN: 0553817876
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Transworld Publishers
Book Reviews of The Italian Job: A Journey to the Heart of Two Great Footballing Cultures
Book Review: on the street where they still play football
Summary: 4 Stars
By far one of the most insightful books written about the game. An interesting amalgam of responsible journalism and football savvy. The authors raise a number of significant issues of which learning the game at an early age is the most salient. What the reader gleans from the discussion of this issue is unequivocal - there is no substitute for the acquisition of skills by children in an environment created by themselves and therefore the one they exclusively control. Skills acquired by trial and error entail self-motivation, passion, obsession, etc. Teaching skills must be conducted in a radically different environment managed and controlled by the instructors. A psychokinetic activity like football is best learnt in a natural setting by children possessing natural ability. The authors quote various cognoscenti on this topic, all of whom regret the disappearance from street football from the urban landscape.
The cultural, socio-economic, geographic-climatic, psychological differences between the English game and "Calcio" are well-researched, relevant, and judiciously taxonomized. Large portions of the book are dedicated to the history of the internationalization of the English game both in terms of foreign players and coaches. While many are are quite valid points, especially with regards to modern training methodologies, acquiring tactical sophistication, nutrition, diet, one question remains -how was it possible for coaches like Matt Busby, Jock Stein, Bill Shankley, Bob Paisley, Brian Clough and others to achieve so much European success? For tactical sophistication just recall Sir Alf Ramsey and the revolutionary system he employed when England had won its solitary World Cup. The players ate steaks and fried cod liver and indulged in alcoholic beverages, that is true. Possibly, the answer could be found in a comment to Claudio Ranieri (horrified on seing his players gorging on fried bananas and cuban rice)by one of Real Madrid's legendary players of the past: "We may have been eating wrong, coach, but we won quite a few games."
Summary of The Italian Job: A Journey to the Heart of Two Great Footballing Cultures
Soccer lies at the heart of popular culture around the world. It is played, watched, written about, and talked to death by millions virtually every day of the year. But how do the characteristics of England and Italy—two of the most passionate soccer playing countries—affect the game in these two nations? Do the national stereotypes of Italians as fervent, stylish lotharios and the English as cold-hearted eccentrics still hold true when they kick a ball around? For the first time, a player of the first rank—Gianluca Vialli—in conjunction with sportswriter and broadcaster Gabriele Marcotti, tackles this debate head on, and they have invited some of the biggest names to join them. Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Sven Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello, and Marcello Lippi, among others, add their not inconsiderable weight to the highest-profile symposium on soccer ever convened. Every aspect of the game is explored, be it tactical and technical or cultural and sociological. Stuffed full of controversial opinions and gripping revelations, this study on the sport takes you on a journey to the very heart of two of the world's great soccer cultures.Football (American) Books
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