If West Coast Don's latest post was outside our genre, this one is from an entirely different galaxy.The subtitle for Brilliant Orange is 'the neurotic genius of Dutch soccer.' (ok, it's actually 'football') and was heartily recommended to me by a college soccer coach as one of the best books he's read about soccer. Now, I may be a lifelong soccer person and the game pays my bills, but until recently, I hadn't read a lot of books or essays about The Beautiful Game (Pele's phrase). Nonetheless, I gave this a try cuz of my friend's recommendation. Couldn't find it anywhere and had to use interlibrary loan to get it. Amazon's next cuz I want to keep a copy of this one (littered with great quotes I could use in my talks).
On the surface, this little book is about Dutch soccer, which before the mid 1960's had the international reputation of Luxemborg or (gasp!) the US. Then in the late 1960's, a sort of perfect storm of players, personalities, and coaching philosophies all came together to create what many consider some of the most breathtaking soccer ever played and continue to be played; a style that many countries, even Brazil, can only dream about.
But the book is not about the artistry of the players or the creativity of their play. No, this book is more a discussion the Dutch culture and addresses religion, architecture, art, farming, language, WWII, their relationship with and against Germany - sort of a Cliff Notes of the what it means to be Dutch. By seeing how the Dutch view themselves, its almost not surprising that even with some of the most gifted players to ever play, they get within a sniff of any number of world titles only to come up short.
Absolutely fascinating . . . if you are into soccer.
East Coast Don
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