Book review: In the Hornets' Nest by Joe Drape

A re-post from our affiliate book review site, Books with Balls.

The sheer sweaty bodyweight of beat writers attached to American sports teams makes books which chronicle one team's journey over an entire season relatively commonplace. It's not an original concept, and basketball teams lend themselves to these diaries more than most. The Jordan Rules, A Season on the Brink (by John Feinstein)

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Brazil's next Golden Generation

The London Olympics get underway in mere hours.



The football, however, has already begun - with storylines aplenty.  North Korea's women have walked from the pitch in Scotland, heavily-fancied Spain were upset in their first match and finally, the football world is blessed to behold "Team GB".  True to British style, flattered to disappoint in their first match, a draw against Senegal.



And

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Tim Cahill joins New York Red Bulls

Courtesy: montrealgazette.com


The New
York Red Bulls have (all-but) signed Australian Tim Cahill from
English Premier League side Everton. He joins MLS after eight
successful years on Merseyside as a attacking-minded midfielder.
He's the kind of player who can – and will – succeed enormously
in MLS.



The time was right for him to move on.
As one of the youngest members of the the

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FIFA's five rules for ruling

Mohammed Bin Hamman's lifetime ban from
all FIFA activities has been lifted by the Court of Arbitration for
Sport. He was last
year found guilty by a FIFA panel of inquiry for attempting to
bribe CONCACAF officials into supporting his bid for FIFA presidency.




Once more the world's most popular
sport plunges into bureaucratic anarchy, unable to focus on anything
other than defending

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Zlatan Ibrahimovic, PSG, AC Milan and the carousel

Life is cyclical. Well, at least until
it isn't.



However, in football, this is more
strangely true than in many other realms.




Take for example Joe Kinnear, who
reared his head
at Newcastle United in 2008 after nearly a decade submerged by
heart trouble, poor results and relegation. The man who signed his
pay cheques? Mike Ashley, who was known as a shrewd businessman when
he arrived

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Short Pitch: Zakuani hugs the man who broke his leg

In front of a typically vocal northwest
crowd on Saturday, Steve
Zakuani made a touching return to MLS. He appeared as an
eighty-sixth minute substitution and impressed: the first pick in the
2009 draft looked his usual energetic self. Zakuani had missed the
past fourteen months after sustaining multiple fractures to his right
leg, courtesy
a reckless tackle by the Colorado Rapids' Brian

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AFL: Martin's suspension a symptom of wider problems

When Daniel
Connors was sacked by the Richmond Football Club yesterday, the
Australian Football League again displayed it's most brutal form of
professionalism. Connors is twenty-three and will likely nominate
for this season's National Draft. His chequered record makes it
unlikely he will be given another chance and after 28 games he will
be ejected to one of the AFL's myriad, bespoke

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Book review: Over Time, by Frank Deford

Frank Deford talks of his work Over
Time not as a memoir but a we-moir, a collation of transient
connections with figures more famous than himself. When asked to
write a piece for alma mater Sports Illustrated about his
early days at the United States' foremost sports magazine, he
initially resisted; but as it became obvious there was a desire for a
Mad Men style homage to the golden age of US

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