How to Enjoy the World Cup

By Chris England

The ultimate guide to the 2014 World Cup, from acclaimed author and football guru Chris England. Whatever your age, whether you're a fanatic or just an innocent bystander, here's how to enjoy the greatest carnival of kick-a-ball on the planet. * In-depth information and analysis on all 32 teams * Full tournament schedule * How to perform classic football tricks that will amaze your friends and confound your enemies. And get you off the sofa during the 7,830 minutes of World Cup football on TV this summer. * Fascinating facts about Brazil, land of jogo bonito * PLUS recipes, games, wallcharts, quizzes, movies, music, how to pick a 2nd team (just in case England don't go all the way), star-gazing tips, Voodoo-teo and much more... www.howtoenjoytheworldcup.net

• Language: English
• Publisher: Old Street Publishing
• Release date: May 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781908699923

Book preview

When I was a kid I used to absolutely hoover up any football highlights on the goggle box – Match of the Day, The Big Match, Sportsnight (with or without Coleman). Live televised football was a rare treat indeed. There was the Cup final, of course, and the Home Internationals, and the occasional Wembley qualifier, but apart from that it was just the four-yearly fix of the World Cup. And even then there was no guarantee that England would have managed to qualify for it.

Kids today – well, they don’t know they’re born. The Premiership, The Champions League, the Europa League, the F.A. Cup right from the really early rounds – there’s so much televised football that it’s actually hard for kids to get into it at all.

Football these days is too demanding. You can’t possibly watch it all, so why watch any of it? By chasing the big bucks football has turned itself into something the younger generation can either take or leave – and these are the potential season-ticket holders of the future we are talking about.

We can’t trust the custodians of the game to take care of its future, not while there are sponsorship deals to be done and television rights to sell. It’s up to us, as parents, to make sure our kids can get the pleasure that we’ve got from the beautiful game in years to come. It’s not enough to shrug and let them mooch about on Facebook, or whatever.

There’s a World Cup on for God’s sake!

Sprinkled throughout this volume are things you can do to draw your children into this kicka- ball extravaganza. And once they are hooked, they are football’s for life!

Take a look at The Ultimate World Cup Wall Chart, How to Create a World Cup Sticker Album, plus all the World Cup Skills sections. And many more (as Ronco would say)!

And if you have a kid who is interested in cooking (you must be very proud), then why not let him or her loose on some of the World Cup food and drink ideas in the book?

WORLD CUP SKILLS #1

The Blanco Hop

All-time great Mexico star Cuauhtémoc Blanco, who won 119 caps, and spent most of his club career turning out for Club América, invented this tremendous surprise manoeuvre, and he stunned the watching world with it at the 1998 World Cup.

The Blanco Hop – also known as the Cuauhteminha – comes into its own when you are faced with two defenders, who have foolishly left a gap between them wide enough to hop through. You grasp the ball between your ankles, and then you leap forwards into the air clutching it up beneath your backside. You should have sufficient momentum to pass between your startled opponents. You will also need to take advantage of the crucial split seconds that it will take them to lift their bottom jaws from the turf to pick up enough speed to actually get away from them once you land.

When Blanco did this against Italy the shock value was greatly increased by the fact that he bounced clean over an almost-equally trademark scythe tackle by Italy’s Zambrotta that could have taken his leg off.

BRAZIL IN FACTS #1

It’s where the nuts come from

That is, according to the famous quotation from Lord Fancourt ‘Babbs’ Babberly, a posh twit character in Brandon Thomas’s massively popular 1892 farce Charley’s Aunt.

Brazil nuts, the Incredible Hulk of the mixed-nut multiverse, are not, botanically speaking, nuts – as Stephen Fry is doubtless telling you on Dave (or possibly Dave Ja Vu) at this very moment. They are seeds. Technically the nut is the hard casing, the size of a coconut, that grows near the top of the roughly 150-foot Brazil tree, and which contains maybe 20 or 30 of what we mistakenly think of as the Brazil nuts fitting together like the segments of an orange. These nut cases are hefty enough to kill you if one lands on your head. Your family would not be able to sue the plantation owner, however, as Brazil nuts only grow in the wild. Their pollination is dependent on a particular species of long-tongued bee, which in turn is attracted by a particular type of wild