New Kids in the World Cup

Name: New Kids in the World Cup
Brand: UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS
Price: 58.75 AUD
Availability: PreOrder

The Totally Late '80s and Early '90s Tale of the Team That Changed American Soccer Forever

By: Adam Elder

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Paperback | 1 June 2026

At a Glance

Paperback
353 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24

Paperback

RRP $69.99

$58.75

16%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $14.69 with

Available: 1st June 2026

Preorder. Will ship when available.

In 1990 a fearless group of players changed the sport of soccer in the United States forever. Young, bronzed, and mulleted, they were America's finest athletes in a sport their country loved to hate. Even sportswriters rooted against them. Yet this team defied massive odds and qualified for the World Cup, making possible America's current obsession with the world's most popular game. Back then players earned twenty dollars a day, the crowds at home games cheered for their opponents, and the fields were often mismarked. In Latin America the U.S. team bus had a machine gun turret mounted on the back, locals sabotaged their hotels, and in the stadiums spectators rained coins, batteries, and plastic bags of urine down on the U.S. players. The world considered the U.S. team impostors. Yet on the biggest stage of all, in the 1990 World Cup, this undaunted American squad and their wise coach earned the adoration of Italy's star players and their fans in a gladiator-like match in Rome's deafening Stadio Olimpico. From windswept soccer fields in the U.S. heartland to the CIA-infested cauldron of Central America and the Caribbean, behind the recently toppled Iron Curtain and into the great European soccer cathedrals, New Kids in the World Cup is the origin story of modern American men's soccer. It's the true adventure of America's most important soccer team--and the one that made America finally fall in love with soccer.

Industry Reviews

"[New Kids in the World Cup] covers an in incredibly important topic in U.S. soccer history, one that has been crying out for a book-length study for a long time." - Benjamin J. Dettmar, Journal of Popular Culture "Elder has written a book that any American reader who enjoys today's version of soccer in the United States should read." - Lance Smith, Guy Who Reviews Sports Books "Men's soccer in America has taken a long and winding road to get to the glitz and glamour we now see with MLS, USL, and the national team. This book is an important reminder to appreciate those who helped build the sport when nobody else cared about soccer. Every page filled me with gratitude for those who came before me." - Landon Donovan, former U.S. Men's National Team captain and co-all-time-leading scorer "A book that transports the reader back to a time when the best male footballers this nation produced toiled way below the radar. Huge love for Adam Elder, who has poured his energy into reconstructing a story that begins with shirtless dancing on a California beach with O.J. Simpson and spirals away from there. Reading this is a reminder of how far we have come, so fast, from a men's footballing perspective." - Roger Bennett, co-host of the TV show Men in Blazers

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