World Cup Fever

May 1, 2018
Readers should know that, despite the 2018 emblazoned on the cover, this is not a preview of the imminent World Cup in Russia: Rea, author of the enjoyable memoir Finn McCool's Football Club (2009), offers an overview of the world's most-watched tournament that is mostly historical in nature. After a personal introduction explaining his origins as a fan, he sketches thumbnail histories of every tournament before briefly revisiting the U.S. failure to qualify for Russia, sharing interesting tidbits of U.S. World Cup history, and finishing with brief takes on this year's contenders. Things are most interesting in the middle, with The Startling Eleven (farcical, tragic, and just plain curious occurrences at past tournaments), The Unlucky 13 (the best players who never got to compete in a World Cup final), and A Perfect Ten (an admittedly subjective list of the best World Cup games ever played). Not an essential purchase, but Rea is an amiable, intelligent chronicler and this is a perfectly fine way to pass the time until the first whistle blows in Moscow on June 14.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)