Next Goal Wins
Next Goal Wins
Story of the American Samoa soccer team, who suffered the worst loss in World Cup history, losing to Australia 31-0 in 2001. With the 2014 World Cup approaching, the team recruits a down on his luck, maverick coach (Fassbender) to help turn their fate around.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 2, 2025
A funny and cute inspirational underdog story. Taika’s typical comical sensibilities along of with several of his regular collaborators are involved so if you like his other films and tv shows, this is very on brand. Favorite character was probably Oscar Kightley’s Tavita, head of American Samoa Football, among several other things. I hadn’t read or heard anything about the film, so I pleasantly surprised to find out it was ver much a trans story as well. Made me want to check out the 2014 documentary. when it comes to the soccer action or any of the sports drama, it seemed kind of lacking. Half of the final match (really the only match) is only recounted to the audience after the fact. The film skips from half time to post game. And we cut to Tavita having passed out from heat stroke. Tavita’s son describes the important parts he missed. So essentially the audience only gets a replay of second half highlights. This really undercut the drama of the underdog sports story and was just a weird choice. It doesn’t detract from the cute story or humor, though.