Once nobody noticed Santa Rosa's Thunder. They were a ragtag team of girls who wanted to play soccer, and no one took them seriously. Their male coach expected little from his "ladies, " and their mediocre performance convinced them he was right.

Then a kind of miracle happened. Emiria Salzmann, Thunder's new coach, a top player herself, knew what it took to win--discipline, relentless drills, thigh-burning sprints, and an inspired passing game. The girls hated it, but their coach never let up. Tough and determined, she showed them what it felt like to be winners--and they loved it. As the momentum grew with a string of victories, the girls thrived on the competition, believing they had the right stuff to become champions.

They were right! With spirits soaring, Thunder won its league on the last day of the season and headed for the state cup, emerging not just as powerful athletes but as strong, confident, emotionally healthy human beings--champions in the game of soccer, and in the game of life.

Customer Rating:
Summary: The Beautiful Game
Comment: The Beautiful Game by Jonathan Littman is a very compelling and well described book. It is very easy for me to relate because as a soccer play I have won state cup three times. I can also relate because I know the journey and the obstacles you have to overcome to be a champion. I relate best to the player Kim because she had to suffer with an injury, exactly what i have been going through. I think why I liked this book so much is because I have a lot in common with these girls, and I have a love and passion for soccer. I recommend this book to any soccer player, or anybody who is chasing after a dream.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Inspiration
Comment: I think this book, The Beautiful Game, was an extraordinary display of a group of 14-year-old girls, who came together as a magnificent soccer team, to overcome a new coach, and many of the road bumps they had on the highway to success. This soccer team was extremely committed and dedicated, not only to the game of soccer, but to each other. And that is the key to playing competitive club soccer. I especially enjoyed this story about this club team called Thunder, because I also play club soccer in Dallas, Texas. My club is called the Dallas Texans (West). I am a '92, which makes me 14 in January. I was incredibly inspired by this book to train as hard as I can, and I learned that getting along with my team is very important. I was also very interested in this book because it must have taken a lot of courage to accomplish what these girls did. I was very fascinated by how well this book was written, and how much I felt like I knew every one of the girls on this team. I think I enjoyed this book because I can relate it to my own experiences. But I don't think you have to be a soccer player to have you heart touched by the lives of the girls in this story. And I also don't think you have to be an athlete to be inspired by the soccer these girls learned to play. This book should be passed down from generation to generation. The Beautiful Game is a phenomenal display of what soccer and true friendship is really about. I overall enjoyed this book because of its amazing life story of the club soccer team Thunder, and its talented 14-year-old players.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: I was there.
Comment: I am the mom of one of the players and have just recently re-read this book about my daughter's team. Looking back on our Thunder experience, I know that it was a unique, almost surreal experience. At the time, we knew it was special but of course, you can't fully appreciate it until it is over. After winning State Cup, Thunder continued to grow and develop as a team, winning several major tournaments and getting back to the State Cup finals in 2000 only to lose to the Placer Sharks. I still see many of the girls and most agree that Thunder was an experience that shaped their life. It wasn't just the soccer or the incredible success the team had, it was more than that. It was the relationships, the experience, and the unique bond that is formed when a group comes together with a unifying goal. It is that undefinable, special something that takes just a talented team and makes it into a great team. So, for those readers that wonder, did it work out okay? I think, for the families that I am close, that yes, yes it did. We are better for the experience.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Inspiring, Amazing
Comment: This was one of th most fantasic books I have read in a while. It show how deticated you have to be to go all out in a sport and how good you can get if you have a good coach. I read the book, and a year later I got a really tough coach. I was temted to quit the team because of the endless running but I remembered how much the coach in this book put the tea through and how far they got, and I kept with it. I have gotten really far and I am still on the team. This is the most wonderful and well written book about teen soccer out there.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Beauty
Comment: I am a girls high school and club coach and I had high hopes for this book, maybe for inspiration, maybe for insight or ideas on how to train my players. I came out with neither. This is a typical story of undisciplined kids that get someone to discipline them and then they become successful. It is very, very close to the same story line and tactics in the movie Hoosiers, only with a young girls soccer team. It does throw in some interesting perspectives about club team rivalries and California soccer, but they are not relevant to other states soccer experience. The types of teams and seasons overlapping do not happen in any state around me.

I agree with a previous post that if it was told 5 years after the season and through the eyes of the players it might be a little better. But we never relly know how it affected the kids. How did it help them? How did it help them mature as adults? Where are they now?

Most important to me is the impression this might leave for other coaches. This is not necessarily the best way to deal with a girls team. Sometimes it works, others it doesnt. I hope this does not encourage all coaches to do this with girls teams...

The positive about his book is in the things parents could learn from this book. I did think the dealing with parents and the attitudes of some parents was humorously accurate. I would suggest all soccer parents read this book and I would suggest players might learn some from this book. But it really could have been alot better...

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