May 2005
The Soccer Tribe
Desmond Morris
Jonathan Cape, 1981
320 pages (coffee table sized)
Dismissed when it was published by the likes of
Martin Amis (see below) and now sadly out of print, Desmond Morris; The
Soccer Tribe remains a visually stunning paen to the game. Reading it almost
25 years after it was published, you discover it also offered a prescient
warning to the existing English football hierarchy about its stadiums and
its fan behavior.
Morris remains an active and well known writer
today well into his seventies. Probably best known for the Naked Ape and
Manwatching, Morris became a Director of Oxford United in 1978. As it says
on the cover flap, he found himself immersed in the game and noticed similarities
between the culture and other societies he had studied for previous books
and television shows. Morris drew a (shaky?) parallel between group hunting
behavior and its rituals and soccer culture. Now whether you agree with
this or not, Morris goes on to describe the soccer culture of the late
1970s/early 1980s in great detail and insight.
He looks at, for example, what the primary uniform
colors might mean. He studies the NASL’s penchant for ‘force of nature’
nicknames (Hurricane, Earthquakes, Blizzard). He breaks down goal celebrations
(from the scoring sprint to the kiss to the handshake and hair ruffle).
His tactical evolution of the game is as well
written and informative as any Paul Gardner or Keir Radnedge has written
on the subject. His analysis of a 1998 WC game between France and Argentina
stands up both technically and graphically.
For all of the insight of his writing, however,
it’s the pictures and graphics that make this book a pleasure to page through.
As the book was completed before shirt sponsors completely too over, the
book is full of stunning color images with intelligent captions. There
is Coventry City’s brown uniform in all it’s glory. There’s a sea of Arsenal
fans at Wembley (in yellow). There’s a famous Japanese forward being lifted
by his teammates. There’s the Vancouver Whitecaps.
As it is out of print, copies can be difficult
to track down. I got my copy (for a stunning $29.95) at a bookstore in
Wilkes-Barre, PA, in 1981. Why a bookstore in northeastern Pennsylvania
(not exactly a soccer hotbed) was carrying this book, in 1981, is one of
life’s mysteries. And 25 years later, the book remains a thoughtful, curious,
wonderful examination of the game.
The War Against Cliché
Martin Amis
Vintage International, 2001
Martin Amis is a great novelist, but this collection
of his book reviews is even better. Two of the reviews concern themselves
with soccer. Morris’ book (see above) and Buford’s Among the Thugs.
Amis doesn’t actually write about Morris’ book
until the end of his review (when he dismisses it almost casually). Instead
it’s a discussion about England’s qualification games for the 1982 World
Cup, English national team managers, and the relative skill of English
players versus European players. The essay is funny and intelligent and
achingly good. And it contains one of the greatest lines ever written about
any player’s defensive abilities “all night long he looked capable of being
nutmegged by a beachball.”
Reading these reviews again, you find yourself
wishing Amis had concentrated his writing on something important, like
soccer, instead of wasting himself producing brilliant, funny, disturbing
literature.
Tony Edwards
Round not Oval |
