Wednesday 8 October 2014

Dallas 'Til I Cry: Learning to Love Major League Soccer by Nathan Nipper


MLS (Major League Soccer) is America's top football (as in soccer) league. It has recently attracted star players such as David Beckham, David Villa and Thierry Henry. However "Major League Soccer is often relegated to second-class status by American soccer fans thanks to the proliferation of European soccer on TV and the internet." Thus an idea was born which is the basis of this book.

Author and American Nathan Nipper confesses that he "developed soccer snob sensibilities towards the MLS." Instead he followed Chelsea and the English Premier League. But how could he call himself an American soccer fan if he paid no heed to the MLS? So he vowed to give MLS a chance and got himself a season ticket for local team, local being 32 miles away, FC Dallas.

The book has a diary format following FC Dallas game by game. First though comes the rather American SuperDraft where FC Dallas pick up a guy with a long term injury thanks to "inflammation at the pubic bone and pelvis" as their first pick, and a guy who could "miss up to six months because of doing missionary work in Haiti" as their second pick. So, coupled with the title of the book "Dalls 'til I cry", a clever rephrasing of the chant Dallas 'til I die, you can tell that the season is not going to be a good one. And so it proves.

Through the season there are good moments, mainly revolving around his family and children as he takes them to their first games, or takes them along to an open training session and watches their interest in soccer grow. You can tell his real passion isn't FC Dallas but his family.

Then there are worse moments in the book where it feels like you are just reading match reports. For FC Dallas fans this may be okay, but for others less so. Also with (spoiler) FC Dallas not making the end of season play-offs it seems strange when he tacks on a section at the end of the book supporting certain other teams as they partake in the play-offs.

Other good parts of the book see an attendance at a press conference and a session for local coaches held by the FC Dallas head coach, a surprisingly open affair providing a little insight into the management of the club at the time.

So overall an interesting read about the MLS and American attitudes towards it. 

Publication date: June 13th 2014



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