Book reviews

Carlisle United have spent two decades at either end of the table. Plenty of excitement but Roger Lytollis just longs for a little calm

Carlisle 1, Huddersfield 2. Disappointing, although no disgrace to be beaten by one of League One’s better teams. Back home I checked the league table. Carlisle had dropped one place to 12th. That may not seem unusual to most people, but to me it was remarkable. It’s been a while since my team floated in the calm waters of mid-table. Twenty-one years, to be precise.

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Recent times have taken a drastic toll on football in Luton and south-west London, but things are looking up. After an 18-year gap Andy Brassell returns to Kenilworth Road with AFC Wimbledon

How did we end up here? The last time many of the 1,000-odd Wimbledon fans who made the trip to Luton on February 20 visited was back in April 1992. The home side that day won 2-1 but failed to stave off relegation from Division One, while the visitors went onto become founder members of the Premier League a few months later.

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Following a recent birthday Cris Freddi takes a look at the select group of international players to have reached triple figures

Francisco Varallo, who turned 100 in February, is the last survivor from the first World Cup. He played in the final. He shouldn’t have done. He hadn’t recovered from the injury that kept him out of the semi. But he didn’t want to miss the big game, so he told porkies about his fitness. Then he broke down in the second half and Argentina lost 4-2 to Uruguay after leading 2-1 at half time. Varallo captained Argentina when they won the Copa América in 1937 before a knee injury ended his career.

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My Autobiography
by Ricky Villa with Joel Miller & Federico Ardiles
Vision Sports, £18.99
Reviewed by Huw Richards
From WSC 290 April 2011

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The title, evoking the famous commentary on his greatest moment, and three pages of adverts for other Spurs-related books, make it clear that there is one reason why Ricky Villa's autobiography was commissioned. There are, though, many more reasons than one for reading it. This might easily have been a lazy exercise focussed exclusively on Spurs and treating everything as though it leads to a single glorious moment in the 1981 FA Cup final replay.

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American Soccer's History of Missed Opportunities and Lost Causes
by David Wangerin
Temple University, £19.99
Reviewed by Ian Plenderleith
From WSC 296 October 2011

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Long is the history of failed football ventures in the US, and short is the list of writers who have been prepared to document them for the benefit of a doubtless unsuspecting world. In this follow-up to his excellent history of US football, the WSC-published Soccer In A Football World, David Wangerin focuses on a handful of the key characters and eras that were central to some of the game's false dawns in a country whose footballing possibilites have always loomed over the world game like a potential new age. Or potential apocalypse, depending on your view of US hegemony.

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