Inverting The Pyramid

Inverting The Pyramid Jonathan Wilson (London: Orion Books, 2008). 374 pages (w/bibliography and index).

I came into the world of soccer through a conflux of my gambling habit and living with a friend who is a rabid soccer fan during the summer of the 2010 World Cup. I had thrown the common epithets at the sport, decried it whenever I got the chance, and never thought twice about the fact that I defended baseball as if it were my firstborn child. Then the name ‘Didier Drogba’ in all its awesomeness happened. (Nevermind the Ivory Coast’s poor showing at the World Cup.) Then Wesley Sneijder and 20-yard goals happened. Suddenly I was scrambling out of bed to catch matches that started at 6 AM local time, fascinated by these teams and this game that could be quite fun and quite beautiful when played well. Regardless of the fact that we couldn’t win a bet to save our lives I was hooked. I had to have more. When the World Cup was over I spent as much time as I could watching Didier at Chelsea or Wesley with Inter. I began to get a feel for what I was seeing, but like I said, I’m a baseball guy. I needed numbers, quantifiable things; statistics or diagrams or charts that would help me explain what my eyes were enjoying. So I turned to books.

I picked up Wilson’s Inverting the Pyramid on the recommendation of my aunt, a genuine soccer fan. I devoured it, delighting especially in the later portions of the book’s chronological explication of soccer tactics mostly because there were names that I recognized (Wayne Rooney, Zenidine Zadane, Drogba, etc.). For the neophyte soccer fan like myself, the book is a bit beyond comprehension in some of the details of tactics. This is especially true when Wilson discusses how repositioning players changed the way an offense or a defense acts or reacts. Because soccer is never shown full-field, it’s difficult to grasp the importance of off-ball positioning that emerges a third of the way through the book. Additionally, if you are as ignorant of international soccer history as I (and if you’re American, let’s face it you probably are) then many of Wilson’s offhand comments about the career paths of many of the players will fly on by without registering.

For all of its English bias, shoddy editing, and intermediate soccer knowledge requirements the book is a success. It is a success because some of the points Wilson makes transcend soccer alone. Granted, soccer is arguably the world’s most global sport, but, for example, is not exceptional in the way coaching trees develop along with the philosophies they employ. What does make soccer unique is that its development of styles was much more a product of the culture and political realities of a particular geographic region than a reaction to the types of players it acquired. These distinctions were obvious in the styles of play. The soccer developed by the coffeehouse intellectuals of Vienna was drastically different than that made up of players from Brazilian favelas. And they were all different than the pragmatic English. As Wilson writes, “every nation came fairly quickly to recognize its strengths, and…no nations seems quite to trust them” (6).

The great paradox of athletics’ place within society is probably best represented in the history of soccer. Throughout Wilson’s history, there is a constant tension between aesthetics and athletics. Is it better to win ugly or to lose (or draw) in beautiful fashion? In a more American parlance, would you rather watch the championship Detroit Pistons or San Antonio Spurs of the early/mid 2000s or Steve Nash’s title-less Phoenix Suns teams? Wilson also addresses themes ubiquitous in the discussions of today’s sports media: how much does coaching matter? Do systems and styles of play have an expiration date? Is sport reactionary or revolutionary?

Inverting the Pyramid is a book I will read more than once. Most of that stems from failure to comprehend entire sections of the tactical discussion, a fault that is entirely mine. That it succeeds in spite of my ignorance is a testament to Wilson’s ability as a writer and the quality of the argument he is making. This is an excellent sports book, even for the casual fan.