Women’s World Cup

How are you celebrating the accomplishments of the U.S. team in the FIFA Women’s World Cup? On Sunday, the team won silver medals after coming in second to Japan in the championship game.

If you’d like to celebrate in a bookish way, I recommend Goal: The Fire and Fury of Soccer’s Greatest Moment by Mark Stewart and Mike Kennedy.

Goal cover This book isn’t about the World Cup specifically. It’s a fun look at scoring goals in soccer throughout the game’s history. Readers can find out about soccer’s origins, some of the most spectacular goals in the sport’s history, and some of the best goal-scorers the game has seen. One of the featured goal-scorers is Abby Wambach, one of the stars of the current U.S. team. Here’s a little tidbit I learned from the book: In the 2007 Women’s World Cup, Wambach needed 11 stitches to close a gash in her head in the opening game. She went on to score six goals in six games. Now that’s impressive!