More Praise for Generation Zero

‘A must read for your sports bookshelf ‘

“Hal Phillips is one of those gifted, modern Renaissance writers who can write engagingly about anything from gourmet food trucks to football — or, to be more precise, futbol, the world’s most popular team sport. Can four billion delirious soccer fans possibly be wrong? Brother Hal thinks not, and skillfully reveals in his delightful new book, Generation Zero, why American sports fans might have been absurdly slow to join the party but are finally catching the Fever — from the playing fields of suburbia to the posh professional stadiums of Major League Soccer. In the process, he tells a charming tale of his own soccer awakening shaped by an unlikely generation of early stars, who transformed America’s indifferent view of the game. A must read for your sports bookshelf — and the budding soccer star you’re driving to practice twice a week.”

— James Dodson, bestselling Author of Final Rounds, American Triumvirate and Ben Hogan – An American Life

‘An authoritative and highly entertaining account’

“Phillips parlays stylish prose, magnificently obsessive legwork, and hands-on (okay, feet-on) experience into an authoritative and highly entertaining account of how a generation of players decisively moved soccer from niche to mainstream in American sporting culture.”

— Carlo Rotella, author of Cut Time: An Education at the Fights

‘Phillips captures all the shaggy glory’

“With dry humor and precise analysis, Hal Phillips has filled in the missing years between American soccer’s early aspirations and today’s actual achievement. Few of us could ever have dreamed in the old days that a continent-spanning professional league and routine World Cup appearances were just around the corner, and Phillips captures all the shaggy glory of how early American soccer went from joke to genuine.”

— Patrick Symmes, author of Chasing Che: A Motorcycle Journey

‘The story of the beautiful game, in a country that came to it late’

“Hal Phillips has buried it in the upper right corner with Generation Zero, his modern history of soccer in the U.S. There’s not a futbol fan or Sunday striker or Soccer Mom who won’t enjoy the mastery he displays in telling the story of the beautiful game, in a country that came to it late. This is both a compelling, comprehensive history and a heartfelt account of one man’s passion for something that many Americans didn’t even notice was sweeping the nation and burrowing into its culture.”

— Jeff Wallach, Sunday striker and author of the novels Mr. Wizard and Everyone Here Is From Somewhere Else

‘a touching, incisive, and above all personal history of the growth of soccer in the U.S.’

“I know Hal Phillips because of a mutual love of golf, but now I see we share a different sporting passion — soccer. With the World Cup looming in 2022, what the rest of the world calls football is enjoying more visibility in the United States than ever. With Generation Zero, Phillips offers a touching, incisive, and above all personal history of the growth of soccer in the U.S., from what he calls The Before Time, through an American Soccer Metamorphosis, to its current position as a Big Time Sport that encompasses so many levels of participation, class, and ethnicity. Read this book before the FIFA World Cup starts on November 21.”

— Paul Spencer Sochaczewski Author of A Conservation Notebook: Ego, Greed, and Oh-So-Cute Orangutans — Tales from a Half-Century on the Environmental Front Lines