[.ca] Behind the Curtain: Football in Eastern Europe (ISBN 0752869078)

Insanely great!:
What a absolute find! This is a first-rate book not only on Eastern European soccer pre- and post-Communist era, but is a sociocultural look inside each nations' pysche. I just loved the fact the author got deep into the more obscure nations like Azerbaijan, Armenia, etc. The stuff on the influence of the Mob on Russian soccer is truly the best thing I've read on the subject. I also love how he narrows in on each nation's seminal soccer moment (i.e., Hungary in the '50s beating England or Steaua Bucharest winning the Euro Cup) and relates it to the state of the game in each nation today. Had to chuckle at how Hungarians saw the English as playing "stupid" soccer..nothing changes if you saw any World Cups since 1982 onwards regarding the English. Get this guy to write more books on soccer. Brilliant and entertaining writing!