Total Football

This title explores everything a young reader would want to know about football, from strong-armed quarterbacks to Super Bowl superstars. The title also features informative sidebars, a glossary, and further resources. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing Company.

An action packed complete collection of the eight book Total Football series from bestselling writer Alan Gibbons. This collection contains the following stories: 1. Some You Win . . . 2. Under Pressure 3. Divided We Fall 4. Injury Time 5. Last Man Standing 6. Power Play 7. Twin Strikers 8. Final Countdown

You've never seen football formations and tactic explored like they are in Total Football ever before. A must-have for football experts! A goalkeeper, two defenders and eight attackers – it’s no surprise that in the 1950s under this popular formation scores like 9-3 were common. So what changed? Total Football tells the evolution of football tactics: from the birth of Total Football in the Netherlands to the dominance of tiki taka in Spain and Brazil, each chapter explores an iconic tactic. Innovative graphics alongside expert text guide you through the manager decisions that developed new formations, the pure talent of players that defined each playing style and the matches that propelled the winning tactic to legendary status. Sanjeev Shetty explores how each tactic works, how they came to dominate and how opponents worked to find a way to beat them. From Pele to Messi, Cruyff to Mourinho, Total Football explores the tactics that made the legends, giving you a new understanding of how the beautiful game is played.

"For the first time ever, you'll find complete statistics for every player who has played even a single game in the NFL. Essays on the history of the game, its championship teams, and most significant games are just the beginning." "Total Football also features articles on the evolution of strategy through the years, team histories, the 300 greatest players, football families, players who enjoyed great public careers after football (such as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White), and the most complete lists ever published on team rosters, awards, and the draft."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Football systems, changing room banter and a couple of mops solve the big questions of life – immortality, happiness and why England always lose, in a new play tackling the beautiful game. After several years of embedded research in the football darklands, a failed attempt to create a UK football team for the 2012 games and pathetic efforts at understanding the offside rule, Ridiculusmus is patching up its metatarsals to examine the melting pot of what it means to be British today.

"A personal portrait of the forefront European soccer star traces his early years with Ajax, the award-winning achievements that have made an indelible mark on Spanish soccer and his post-World Cup contributions as a coach and team advisor, "--NoveList.

The Netherlands has been one of the world's most distinctive and sophisticated football cultures. From the birth of Total Football in the sixties, through two decades of World Cup near misses to the exiles who remade clubs like AC Milan, Barcelona, Arsenal and Chelsea in their own image, the Dutch have often been dazzlingly original and influential. The elements of their style (exquisite skills, adventurous attacking tactics, a unique blend of individual creativity and teamwork, weird patterns of self-destruction) reflect and embody the country's culture and history. This book lays bare the elegant, fractured soul of the Dutch Masters and the culture that spawned them by exploring and analysing its key ideas, institutions, personalities and history in the context of wider Dutch society.

'There's me with my mind full of the beautiful game . . . and what are we really, a bunch of deadbeats . . .' But Kev McGovern has a reputation to live up to and when he takes over as captain of the Rough Diamonds he pulls the team up from the bottom of the league, and makes them play to win . . . every match.

The hottest young football players are already tearing up the gridiron. Football’s New Wave gives readers a front-row seat to this transition from one generation to the next, with pages full of information about these players, where they came from, and what makes them stand out.

The Rough Diamonds are a close knit team. Kev McGovern, their captain, makes sure they work hard and play hard. Kev is stunned when he discovers that Dave has to cope with epilepsy. When he suffers a major attack, the victory the Rough Diamonds are so desperate to win, hangs in the balance.