Well, World Cup fever is on us once again and here Graham McColl takes a look at the possible how’s and why’s of certain teams winning the coveted cup. He looks at all the various factors that go in to making that winning team from tactics to pure luck and with all this in mind he looks at the qualifying teams for the 2010 competition.
It is biggest sporting event in the world, watched by billions, in a game played on every scrap of land on the planet. It is every boy's dream to win it. Yet just seven countries, from only two continents, ever have. Why? And, most importantly, how? How to Win the World Cup takes apart all the previous 18 editions of football's pre-eminent competition to look at the sporting DNA as well as the vital statistics of winning teams. It debunks myths and turns accepted truths on their heads in search of the essence of victory. Home advantage helps, surely? Only once in the past three decades. Well, the best team wins, then; it's only seven matches, after all. Not since Brazil in 1970 - and don't ask a Dutchman. By going beyond tactics and teams to examine factors as diverse as team spirit and the choice of captain, media hype and public expectation, the political climate and even the weather (luck, penalties and cheating play a part too, of course), Graham McColl has produced a World Cup book unlike any to have gone before it. And at the end of the day, he looks at what the 32 nations who have qualified for South Africa 2010 are bringing to the table, and if they have what it takes. Do England have the recipe for success? Can they win the World Cup, for the first time in 44 years? You read it here first.
Graham McColl is an experienced freelance writer. He is the author of several successful books, including CELTIC: THE OFFICIAL HISTORY and CELTIC: THE JOCK STEIN YEARS, and contributes to FOUR FOUR TWO and WHEN SATURDAY COMES. He lives and works in Glasgow.
