The Beautiful Game: Sixteen Girls and the Soccer Season That Changed Everything

I am the mom of one of the players and have just recently re-read this book about my daughter's team. Looking back on our Thunder experience, I know that it was a unique, almost surreal experience. At the time, we knew it was special but of course, you can't fully appreciate it until it is over. After winning State Cup, Thunder continued to grow and develop as a team, winning several major tournaments and getting back to the State Cup finals in 2000 only to lose to the Placer Sharks. I still see many of the girls and most agree that Thunder was an experience that shaped their life. It wasn't just the soccer or the incredible success the team had, it was more than that. It was the relationships, the experience, and the unique bond that is formed when a group comes together with a unifying goal. It is that undefinable, special something that takes just a talented team and makes it into a great team. So, for those readers that wonder, did it work out okay? I think, for the families that I am close, that yes, yes it did. We are better for the experience.

As a 13 yr. old soccer player on a travel, middle school team and aspiring to play high school and college soccer as soon as I picked up this book I could not put it down. Not only could I relate with the majority of topics in this book but whenever I've had a bad practice or game I read this book and it encourages me over and over again. I've read so many soccer books and this is the best one I've ever read.I could relate to Shauna and Kim because I had a knee injury this yr. and even though I couldn't play or run or even touch a ball I worked on my hand-eye coordination and watched all the soccer I could soak up. Like other reviews said, I would like to know where these players went to - whether they quit or played college soccer, etc.

This is an excellent story that will have you wanting to skip ahead to find out how things turned out in the end. Author Jon Littman got very lucky when he picked a team to follow. A middle of the pack team turned into State Cup winners in one year under a new coach. There was no way the author could have known this when he started following them, however.He provides great insight into the minds of 14 year old girls, the pressures and problems of their lives and how it affects what they will become. This isn't just about soccer, it's about growing up, about the crucial middle school years when girls (and boys) form their self image. Who am I? Why am I here? How should I live my life? It isn't about becoming an All American athlete. It's about "why do it if you aren't going to do it 100%?" Many of us think that the barriers for women have all come down. But Littman shows that the big remaining barriers are those that women set for themselves. Model or athlete? Barbie doll or self confident leader? Littman's work left me a bit teary eyed by the second half of the book. I've seen the well meaning parents who think you are asking too much. Who expect perfection from the coach but not their child. Who don't really support their child's choice of sports. Littman has laid it all out for us to see, showing that what's happening with our children isn't all that different.I do have a few quibbles with Littman's work. Some of the more soccer literate would probably like to see a summary of the team's results in more of a box score format. I found it difficult to follow who was who, particularly in the beginning. Admittedly, a big challenge for the author when you have 20 leading characters. Even in the later chapters, a line up would have been valuable. I felt that the ending was a bit forced. Essentially, coach is upset with a big loss, parents yell at coach, end of book. After so much on going insight about how players felt, there was no bridge for the two months from Regionals to the fall high school season. What happened to Erin and her dad? Did she make the new team? Is she happy with her choice? Is her dad happy with his choice? Even at the end, there's a steller new player, Haley Stein. Where did she come from? Where was she playing before? Although Littman interviewed the players in depth, it appears he did not talk to Emiria in depth. How much of what she did was an act? A "game face" designed to get the soccer and personal transformation that had to take place?If nothing else, wanting all this additional information about the team is a testament to how caught up the reader becomes in their story. I left a lot of other books on the nightstand to finish this one in two days. It was worth it.

I loved this book. As a 12 year old girls travel soccer player, I understood a lot of what the girls were thinking. At the same time, it motivated me to push harder in my practices. The camadrie that this team forms is outstanding, and Jon Littman did an incredible job writing this book in an easy to relate to style. I have now renewed this book from the library 3 times, and am going to buy it.

I had a ball reading The Beautiful Game. It evoked memories of gorgeous New England Autumn days playing soccer for a girls team -- the sweat and the glory. Even better: I loved reading about the girls. They are valiant, petty, powerful, tired, gorgeous, vain, independent, rebellious, funny, sweet, fervent, passionate for play...and more eager for training than anyone had given them credit for. This is a true snapshot of teenage girls. Thank God for Coach Emiria Salzmann, who hardens these girls into powerful and collaborative competitors. Thank God for Jon Littman, who chronicles this brilliant, critical and all too rare evolution. Jon writes about what so many of us forget or never knew: girls need *serious* challenges if they are to grow up and be strong women. If you are a parent or friend of a teenage girl, read this book and let it coach you. Otherwise, cavort through this Tracy Kidder-style chronicle of a winning team playing outstanding soccer and I promise you will not put it down until you have exhausted every play.