This is Everybody Soccer's first book review. I plan on doing more in the future but only if they are limited to three pages. The book is called Zoe's Goal and apparently is viewed as cannon in the Muppet universe.
The cover is pretty telling of what we're getting into. The title "Zoe's Goal" seemingly refers to a soccer term but understanding that Zoe is actually referring to "Zero Energy", as in a zero energy goal, things become much clearer. The unnamed shooter, who has little to no soccer training (notice how much she is using her hands to reach out for the ball and stiff arm the goalkeeper), might want to consider groundskeeping as a better venture as the field is having trouble with level grass and has not been mowed in so long that flowers are beginning to sprout.
The book posses a very sharp meta aspect to it. As the reader turns the page, the soccer ball (which is akin to a squeeze toy) stays not in place but transcends time and space. For all the advances in soccer we think we make the game is essentially the same since its beginning. The void created by the ball on the left side of the page alludes to our disinterest in past soccer over current, more popular teams. A hole is formed in our knowledge of the game as we only continue to look forward and not build off of what is already known.[1]
In the background, we can see a looming city. This is a clear representation of the limit of most federations' grasp in reaching out to the lower communities. The upper-class cities leagues, with their high club fees and expensive uniforms, are so distant from the playground games that inspire creativity, harvest a true love for the game, and can, in this case, break down archaic gender roles. Although the book shows that there are downsides to rural organizations, shown in the gaudy amount of the attacker's jewelry. Law 4 clearly states that, "A player must not use equipment or wear anything that is dangerous to himself or another player (including any kind of jewelry)." Had there been a referee with any experience, the attacker would have had to removed the jewellery to be on the field. Also maybe the referee would have insisted that there be any lines on the field, teammates wear corresponding uniforms, and that the ball be regulation size, not one that magically grows in size as it wishes. The inefficiencies covered in this book, while focused on mainly the player-club relationship, do hit on the lack of competent referees in nearly every country.
The two bugs that have floated in on either side of the picture are not simply for visual aesthetics. It is clear the author is pointing out that even though you may be teammates with the utmost selfish players, you should still move into space. The practice of covering space is a great habit to ingrain, especially in young players. Even if you do not receive the pass despite being in a great position, you can still affect the run of play by pulling a defender over to cover you and out of the way out the shot. Although Oscar the Grouch is unlucky in that two of his defenders are still climbing the hill (seen in the background) and another is a tree, which for all the aerial prowess it may display is routinely criticized for its lack of mobility. Also it should be stated that monstrous bugs half the size of your head are dangerous and you should do whatever you can to not encourage them to come close to you (like sharing possession of the ball).
We do not know how soon into the game the shot takes place but that is not the point of this frame. Notice the shooter's planting foot and where it is pointed. It is no wonder his shot fires well wide of the goal. (The goalkeeper is so unphased by the shooter's line up that he rests his left arm on his garbage can.) It is clear that the shooter thinks highly of himself and goes for the shot even though his teammate has the better angle back post.
We should note that these photographs were likely taken well before the turn of the century. This is evident from the goalkeeper's hat to block out the setting sun (note the falling shadows) and he shows no interest in having foot skills, both common traits of goalkeepers in the twentieth century.
At first we are thankful that a coach enters the scene and starts to instruct the team but all hope of his aide is quickly abandoned. His first action is to completely ignores the selfish striker (in red) and speaks with harsh undertones to the other striker (the author makes this evident with the blood red colors on the command "kick"). The striker in red (whose name we do not know) surely picks up on the subtext and tries to redirect his teammate's immense energy into doing the basic of actions in soccer. Again the author does a perfect job in addressing the many problems with youth soccer: an ineffective coach who is lambasting an player with vague, unhelpful advice. Luckily, the player is completely oblivious to the tense dynamics ("dancing" is sited as a main distraction) and continues to play on. [2]
The culture and environment are hinted at on this page and help the reader to understand the situation a bit more. Despite the sun being out, the coach is wearing the thickest sweater possible; the humidity is so immense that the clouds are literally about to burst right over a looming firehouse; a bug that is a tenth of the size of the ball wants to participate in the game. Clearly this culture values irony and this might explain the red striker's large ego despite poor mechanics.
There is some debate on this page's connection to the last page. Scholars tend to agree that this is not another picture of the game as the orange striker is performing a nutmeg on the red striker (a common school ground trick practiced on opponents).[3] Two other possible situations remain: either the coach has stopped the informal match to instruct and threat his players OR this is a picture of a following day's practice. If the latter were true, which I tend to towards (due to the change in shadows), the next page would likely be the second leg between the two teams.
Like most game footage from the twentieth century, the "highlights" given are only of goals scored. (Perhaps a handful of clips of various run of plays would be spliced in as well.) Regardless of the timeline here, the main focus is on the growth in the shooter's ability. She is hitting a shot with the outside of her foot to bend the ball around the goalkeeper into the lower back post corner. For anyone familiar with soccer, the sharp angle and difficulty of the shot are palpable and the player is now recognized as an established player. [4] This shot of the goal distinctly harkens back to the 1950 US-England World Cup game where the video caught all but the lone goal scored.[5]
A lot of details are left out of the ending (final score, how much time has elapsed, future outcomes of players, etc). This is done on purpose to not distract the reader from the main point of the story. The shooter has overcame her disadvantages (rural community, poor coaching, selfish teammates) and has focused on what she can control. She has honed her skills despite hurdles that would frustrate others to the point of quitting. This point is driven home by the complete decimation of the once proud city that stood in the background.
Perhaps a stronger point for the reader is that the lesson learned by the striker have not been learned by all. The defenders are still out of position and are calling for offside but the referee (shown in blue) does not make the call (although out of fairness his assistant referees are out of position or non-existent); the goalkeeper, who is about to yell at his defense, I'm sure (haha), is still practicing poor technique by using just one hand to save the ball and the other to brace his fall (although he could be using a tactic similar of Darth Vader by only using one hand in combat); the coach is clearly too fat to fly.[6]
While it is unknown if this story is captured from history or is completely fictional, this book is excellent for aspiring players to learn the values of overcoming setbacks and for babies because of the squeaky noise the fun soccer ball makes.
Footnotes
1. A small sect disagrees and thinks that a hidden message of the abilities of time travel and buried in the book.
2. The coach may be the same ex-basketball player who, despite being up to eight feet tall in some reports, could not dunk a basketball ball and was is projecting his frustration his the lack of his athleticism on his players.
3. Although recent revisionists have argued that this would harken back to the culture's irony or that the red striker could simply be stepping over the ball to set up his trailing teammate (this would bring up a follow up point that perhaps the red striker has realized his selfishness and the potential of the youngster). However this does not explain the coach's coming on to the field.
4. Conspiracy theorists of this book claim that the ball accidentally ricochets off the shooter's back heel and its direction towards the goal is merely luck and that the book's main point is not of the unpolished skill in poorer communities but that all of life is random and meaningless. The angle of the camera may look like that but there are no reports that this game was decided on a fluke goal. Theorists also claim that the player's name is Zoe but have no evidence to back this up.
5. England's then goalkeeper, Bert Williams, was known as a very grouchy man although no evidence has surfaced that he lived in a trash can.
6. "Vader proved able to apply this personalized variant in many ways, sometimes opting to fight one-handed, relying on precision and economy of movement..." Vader was also known to be grouchy, much like Bert Williams.
