For a good six weeks now, I have intended to write about the World Soccer Atlas. And it's been giving me fits.

I can point a finger at the usual suspects: perfectionism and its unholy offspring, procrastination. Not that I’m trying to be cutesy with alliteration or anything, but for the past several weeks a poor internet connection has lengthened my list of excuses.

A couple of months ago Soccer Orb was visited by one of the creators of the World Soccer Atlas. She was kind enough to send me a copy and I was eager to share my thoughts about it with you, dear readers. But for some odd reason, I was hit with a terrible case of writer’s block. Could it be because I once wrote a formal review of an historical reference work for a periodical that’s used by reference librarians? That's it! Somehow, I had forgotten that I would be publicizing a cool and useful handbook of soccer geography, two subjects that are definitely in my "favorite things" file. Here goes...

The World Soccer Atlas consists of nearly five hundred pages of facts, football and otherwise, about every nation, territory, or any other kind of body politic that’s found on this planet. The cover announces that the Atlas includes places “From the Top of the Himalayas to the most remote island nations.” The Himalayas certainly come to mind when I think about all the effort that went into the production of this atlas. Hats off to the creators--Marc Asmode, Rebecca Gilsdorf, and Daniel Lopez.

Exactly what kind of factual information does the Atlas provide? Let’s see what we can learn about, say, Kazakhstan.

• Both the street and web addresses are provided for the Kazakh Football Union, as well as its phone number.
• The nation’s flag is depicted.
• We learn that the capital is called Astana and the country was formed in 1991.
• Population and population density are provided.
  
• We learn about its languages, literacy rate, currency, and general economic structure. Sorry Borat, but only about a quarter of the economy is agricultural!
  
• Major religions and ethnicities.
• There are brief descriptions of Kazakhstan’s geography, natural resources, and climate.
• There’s a map showing Kazakhstan nestled among its immediate neighbors.
• Beliashi is an example of Kazakh cuisine.

What about football?

Kazakhstan has never qualified for the World Cup. One can find out who the “country league champions” were from 1996 – 2004. There is also a list of twenty-eight premiere league clubs, including the cities and stadiums that are home to each club. Even the stadium capacity is provided. The clubs are denoted on the Kazakh map by little footballs. The interior of Kazakhstan must be inhospitable to football (a desert, maybe?), as most of the teams are found on the nation’s periphery.

In short, if you can spare five minutes to glance over Kazakhstan’s entry in the World Soccer Atlas, you could easily have outed Sacha Baron Cohen as a phony Kazakh if he had shown up on your doorstep with a camera crew.

Countries are grouped according to the FIFA Confederation to which they belong. So we have Europe, Africa, Asia, Concacaf, South America, and Oceania. But there’s also an intriguing and lengthy category called “Far and Away.” Here’s where the reader can find facts about places like the South Georgia and Sandwich Islands, Dhekelia, and Zanzibar.

Zanzibar. There’s a name that’s evocative of somewhere remote, exotic, warm, almost sensuous. Where, exactly, is Zanzibar? It turns out that it’s an archipelago just twenty-five miles off the Tanzanian coast, in the Indian Ocean. According to the Atlas, fourteen football clubs play for the enjoyment of its 621,000 residents. I was a bit confused as to Zanzibar’s political status, but a visit to Wikipedia cleared this up. The islands are part of Tanzania, and are not sovereign states. So Zanzibarian footballers play for the Tanzanian national side, I guess.

Sorry for the digression, but I was actually attempting to make a point. American soccer supporters have serious dependency issues when it comes to the internet. Lately, an unreliable connection has left me high and dry. I even resorted to opening the Chicago Tribune’s sports page (thank God for Luis Arroyave, she says through gritted teeth, even though he’s living my dream). But the Trib can’t tell me anything about football in Kazakhstan or Zanzibar. Like most of you, I head to Google or Wikipedia when seeking practically any kind of information these days. And yet here's the value of a print reference guide such as the World Soccer Atlas: it's portable, quick, and simple to use. It doesn't disappear when the temperatures drop to single-digits (I couldn't resist that anti-Comcast dig). And it's loaded with interesting facts.

The authors’ love of football and their appreciation for the fascinating and diverse places where it is played around the globe are apparent on every single page. The World Soccer Atlas can be purchased at www.soccerexplorers.com for $14.95, plus $6 shipping and handling.

Now I will return to a favorite childhood pastime: flipping through the pages of a dictionary or encyclopedia or other reference book, and reading the entries, just for the fun of it…

So there are twenty-nine clubs in Burkina Faso, and the 2003 Women’s Champions were the charmingly-named Princess Ouagadougou? Mango chutney is a favorite food there…and since it enjoys a tropical climate, no one there is tormented by the sight of snowflakes.