Reddit reviews Bloody Confused!: A Clueless American Sportswriter Seeks Solace in English Soccer

Bloody Confused!: A Clueless American Sportswriter Seeks Solace in English Soccer -- The book for the novice soccer fan. It explains how one can get caught up in the sport even if they deride it or have no history with it. Amazon: After covering the American sports scene for fifteen years, Chuck Culpepper suffered from a profound case of Common Sportswriter Malaise. He was fed up with self-righteous proclamations, steroid scandals, and the deluge of in-your-face PR that saturated the NFL, the NBA, and MLB. Then in 2006, he moved to London and discovered a new and baffling world—the renowned Premiership soccer league. Culpepper pledged his loyalty to Portsmouth, a gutsy, small-market team at the bottom of the standings. As he puts it, “It was like childhood, with beer.”

The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer -- Be warned this book can be mistaken as a blunt object. One of the most global histories I've ever read. If you like information about how world soccer got to where it is now, I highly recommend this book. Amazon: In this extraordinary tour de force, David Goldblatt tells the full story of soccer's rise from chaotic folk ritual to the world's most popular sport-now poised to fully establish itself in the USA. Already celebrated internationally, The Ball Is Round illuminates soccer's role in the political and social histories of modern societies, but never loses sight of the beauty, joy, and excitement of the game itself.

Long-Range Goals: The Success Story of Major League Soccer -- Amazon: From the league’s formation in 1993 to the David Beckham era, this book reveals all the action on and off the pitch: the politics, the lawsuits, the management of its teams, and the savvy business deals that helped MLS rebound. It also revels in the big personalities of its stars, the grace of its utility players, and the obstacles the league faces in meeting its long-range goals.

Corner Offices & Corner Kicks -- Amazon: The Bethlehem Steel soccer team of 1907-30 and the New York Cosmos of 1971-85 were very much alike in a number of ways beyond their status as the two greatest soccer teams the United States has ever produced. The most important way that they are alike is that both were owned by major corporations, which is the exception in professional sports, and both experienced the benefits and the pitfalls of corporate ownership. Here are the stories of these two teams, and in particular the roller-coaster rides that their ownership situations sent them on.

Bloody Confused is a very interesting/entertaining read from an American sportswriter who moved to England to follow/learn about the sport.

Read this book now. Bloody Confused: A Clueless American Sportwriter Seeks Solace in English Soccer. It's the best way to get up-to-speed quickly for Americans. https://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Confused-Clueless-American-Sportswriter/dp/0767928083

FIFA is a great way to get into soccer. You can start out in career mode to find a team/players that you enjoy using. Once you identify those players and tactics that you're comfortable give FUT a try. It's really enjoyable for me to build a team and compete online against people, even though I'm not very good. Also, I would recommend reading this article: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060719 for a humorous look at picking a Premier League team.

This book is also amazing and offers a good look at what an American moving to England and learning to love the sport goes through: http://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Confused-Clueless-American-Sportswriter/dp/0767928083/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450281120&sr=8-1&keywords=bloody+confused

This Book Would be your required reading.