Modern Football

A mazy dribble through the recent history of European soccer, showing how shifting styles and influence have shaped the game. In the early 1990s, the Dutch footballing philosophy was worshiped across the continent. Then the baton passed to the Italians, who clearly boasted Europe's strongest league. But when France started winning everything at international level its national academy became the template for others, until suddenly, almost out of nowhere, Europe's most revered player and manager both hailed from Portugal.

The inside story of the most colorful decade in NFL history - pro football's raging, hormonal, hairy, druggy, immortal adolescence. Between the Immaculate Reception in 1972 and The Catch in 1982, pro football grew up. In 1972, Steelers star Franco Harris hitchhiked to practice. NFL teams roomed in skanky motels. They played on guts, painkillers, legal steroids, fury, and camaraderie. A decade later, Joe Montana's gleamingly efficient 49ers ushered in a new era: the corporate, scripted, multibillion-dollar NFL we watch today.

In his trademark tell-it-like-it-is style, Chris sets his sights on 25 aspects of the modern game that need fixing. From ridiculous rules and feckless agents to dreaded VAR and abusive fans, no subject is out of bounds. Discover which managers Sutton slams for giving bland post-match interviews, which clubs are fleecing their fans and why he believes Messi and Ronaldo aren't as good as Best and Maradona.

Football is evolving rapidly. Defenses are accelerating their ability to adapt to the no-huddle tempo, the full-field passing attack, and RPO advancements of the modern offensive passing game. The offense must adapt or get left behind. Fortunately, the R4 system continually advances, making an already proven equalizer the decisive weapon to fast-track offensive adaptability against the modern warfare of defense.

In this fascinating and exhaustively researched book, the first of its kind in the English language, Tom Williams brings to life French football’s chequered coming of age over the last 40 years. Featuring exclusive interviews with great figures of the French game such as Alain Giresse, Jean-Pierre Papin, Emmanuel Petit and Blaise Matuidi, and with a cast of characters that also includes Michel Platini, Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema, Chris Waddle and Lionel Messi, it's a book no football fan will want to miss.

In Masters of Modern Soccer, Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl asks: How do some of the game's smartest figures master the craft of soccer? By profiling players in every key position (American phenomenon Christian Pulisic, Mexican superstar Javier "Chicharito" Hernández, Belgium's Vincent Kompany, Spain's Xabi Alonso, Germany's Manuel Neuer) and management (Belgium coach Roberto Martínez and Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc), Wahl reveals how elite players and coaches strategize on and off the field and execute in high pressure game situations.

As a former Super Bowl-winning coach, Tony Dungy is an expert at building and bringing out the best in a team. Drawing on his experiences from years of coaching and working with other leaders, this football fable lays out four essential principles practiced by truly effective teams. Whether you aspire to be a better leader or a stronger team player, The Soul of a Team will show you how to contribute to a stronger, healthier, more productive team destined for success.

Goal! covers the history of the beautiful game from its origins in English public schools in the early 19th century to its current role as a crucial element of a globalized entertainment industry.

For more than a half century, television has played a primary role in securing college football's place as one of America's most popular spectator sports. But it has also been the common denominator in the sport's rise as a big business. Television, which multiplied the number of people who cared about the game, simultaneously increased the stakes.

In Mavericks, Money and Men, football historian Charles Ross chronicles the AFL's key events, including Buck Buchanan becoming the first overall draft pick in 1963, and the 1965 boycott led by black players who refused to play in the AFL All Star game after experiencing blatant racism. He also recounts how the success of the AFL forced a merger with the NFL in 1969, which arguably facilitated the evolution of modern professional football.

A New Formation is not a book about football and racism. Jacobs and his co-contributors—including authors Musa Okwonga and Aniefiok Ekpoudom and sports broadcaster Jeanette Kwakye MBE—eschew the standard frameworks of trauma and oppression that are foisted upon Black narratives and seek to move beyond discussions of diversity, identity and representation. Featuring interviews with legendary players such as Ian Wright, Anita Asante and Andy Cole, they draw upon broader social and cultural history to examine Black footballers in contexts larger than themselves.

In the long annals of sports and crime, no story compares to the one that engulfed the Luckman family in 1935. As 18-year-old Sid Luckman made headlines across New York City for his high school football exploits at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, his father, Meyer Luckman, was making headlines in the same papers for a very different reason: the gangland murder of his own brother-in-law. Amazingly, the connection between sports celebrity son and mobster father was studiously ignored by the press and ultimately overlooked for eight decades.

The use of analytics in sport is now well embedded. Marginal gains, the bedrock upon which the cycling coach Dave Brailsford built his greatest successes, are cornerstones of most sports nowadays. But, until recently, that did not apply to the biggest sport in the world. Not in soccer. It was as though this simplest of sports is too complicated for statistics. Or that only one statistic counts, the number of times the ball hits the back of the net. "The only statistic that counts", there’s an often used and annoying stock term.

A collection of lyrical sweet-nothings whispered to late goals, local radio commentators, referees falling over and 47 other reminders of why we love football. Despite its flaws and excesses, modern football is still sprinkled with simple yet beguiling delights. In his previous book Saturday, 3pm, Daniel Gray captured many of them. Now he is back with a further 50 short essays of prose poetry dedicated to the game’s charming, technicolour minutiae.

Overpaid players. Sunday lunchtime kick-offs. Absurd ticket prices. Non-black boots. Football’s menu of ills is long. Where has the joy gone? Why do we bother? Saturday, 3pm offers a glorious antidote. It is here to remind you that football can still sing to your heart. Warm, heartfelt and witty, here are 50 short essays of prose-poetry dedicated to what is good in the game.

Wie Fußball zum großen Geschäft wurde. Fantasie-Ablösesummen und -Gehälter für Superstars. Vereine in den Händen von Oligarchen, Scheichs und Hedgefonds. Gebührenexplosion bei Bezahlsendern. Die WM in Katar... Im Jahr 1992 ändert sich im Fußball alles: Die Champions League wird gegründet. In Deutschland startet mit "ran" das neue Zeitalter des Fernsehfußballs. In England entsteht die Premier League, die heute global erfolgreichste Fußballliga. Es beginnt das Goldene Zeitalter des modernen Fußballs.

As Don Shula and Johnny Unitas elevated the brutal game of football, the world around them clashed about Vietnam, civil rights, and sex. Collision of Wills looks at the complicated relationship between Don Shula, the league's winningest coach of all time, and his star player Johnny Unitas, and how their secret animosity fueled the Colts in an era when their losses were as memorable as their victories.

On December 28, 1958, the New York Giants and Baltimore Colts met under the lights of Yankee Stadium for that season's NFL Championship game. Football was still greatly over-shadowed by the country's favored pastime - baseball - but the 1958 championship proved to be the turning point for pro football.

On the field and roaming the sidelines were 17 future Hall of Famers, including Colts stars Johnny Unitas, Raymond Berry, and Gino Marchetti, and Giants greats Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, and assistant coaches Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry.

The Best Game Ever is a brilliant portrait of how a single game changed the history of American sports.

Dallo Stadium, gigantesca arena inaugurata a Torino nel 1911, allo Juventus Stadium, aperto - sempre a Torino - nel 2011: nell'arco di un secolo il nostro football ha vissuto momenti epici e tragici. Ricordiamo la vittoria dell'Italia ai mondiali del 1934, disputati in casa; i trionfi del Grande Torino; lo storico scudetto del Cagliari di Gigi Riva e quelli del Verona di Bagnoli e del Milan di Sacchi; ma anche la drammatica morte del tifoso laziale Vincenzo Paparelli in un derby Roma-Lazio del 1979, e il "Totonero", primo grande scandalo calcistico.

Modern football has created pass first offenses that can shred an unprepared secondary quickly. The days of drop back zone coverages where defenders drop into space and hope the receivers run to them are dead. Pattern Matching Coverages takes the principles of zone defense and combines it with the pressure of man-to-man techniques. The simple schemes are designed to combat the major passing concepts of modern football and pressure quarterbacks into making a mistake.