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Next Goal Wins Movie Review

Name: Next Goal Wins Movie Review
Item: Next Goal Wins
Rating: 4
Author: Pradip Bhat

Written by

Review for the film " Next Goal Wins"

Runtime: 1 Hour 37 Minutes

Certificate: UA

Released: 09-05-2014

Genre: Sports, Documentary

Similar To: The Beautiful Game, Rumble, Monrovia Indiana, The Merger

Critic Review
User Review

4 / 5.0

3.30 / 5.0

In the face of a series of losses, this documentary is about the journey of the Samoan Football team from despair to hope under the determined and courageous guidance of Dutch Coach Thomas Rongen.

Plot: Branded as the Worst Football Team on the planet, the Samoan Football Team had to suffer a lot of criticisms after their record defeat, 0-31, against the Australian team in 2001. They were also incapable of redeeming their name after that as they continuously kept losing all their games, keeping at the lowest position in the list of football teams in FIFA. At the face of the FIFA qualifiers of 2014 World Cup in Brazil, they turn to Thomas Rongen, who trains the team for a month in the hope to make them be able to play in the FIFA again, with a renewed reputation.

Brett and Jamison have made a wonderful work of holding up the story of these underdogs under the miracle man who gave his everything in trying to turn the luck around for the team who himself realized has “by far the lowest standard” of football. The whole path of the journey is captured in a very raw and unaltered way. They made sure also to include the short-comings of the team in such a way so that there is no room for sugar-coating the whole scenario to make the viewer start rooting for the team without getting to know them first.

The entire cast earned their deserved place in the documentary and in the hearts of the viewers. There are many personal stories of troublesome past – the goalkeeper who had to go through too much because of his defeat, the incredible Jaiyah Saelua. Jaiyah is the first ever transgender to ever play in the FIFA, and her spell-binding work in the field, and also the star Coach, who had to suffer the death of his young daughter in the past. Not only the people of the documentary, but also the entire culture and life of the American Samoans been treated with a lot of sensitivity and maturity. Keeping aside the occasional swearing of the Coach in exasperation, this documentary is filled with some big positive figures which make this movie a heart-touching watch with a completely unexpected ending.

Verdict: To this inspirational journey of a losing team towards the light of hope under watchful eyes of a great coach, I give this sports documentary, 4 out of 5 victories.

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