Cinematography:
Steve JamisonComposer:
Roger GoulaCast:
Thomas Rongen, Jaiyah Saelua, Nicky Salapu, Gene Ne'emia, Larry Mana'o, Rawlston Masaniai, Charles UhrleVOD (4)
Plots(1)
Mike Brett and Steve Jamison direct this feature documentary following the fortunes of the American Samoa soccer team, officially the worst international football side in the world. The nadir of American Samoa's soccer career arrived when they lost 31-0 to Australia in 2001, the heaviest loss ever recorded in a FIFA match. The result was in line with Samoa's status as the lowest ranked team in the FIFA listings, but the islanders were determined to improve their fortunes. They duly employed hardened Dutch coach Thomas Rongen to whip them into shape. How would a man who played alongside George Best and Johann Cruyff deal with footballers of a very different level as the qualifying campaign for the 2014 World Cup approached? (Icon Home Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (2)
US Samoa is (was?) a synonym for an outsider of all outsiders. A team that almost never scored in an official match and almost never got any points, precisely did quite the opposite and regularly concede so many goals that the results of the team gave the impression that these are the match results of a completely different sport than football. And to make matters worse, it is also the team with the highest defeat in an interstate match ever in history. But its football chairman has a long-time dream; namely, nothing less than to be at least once place not on the last position of FIFA ranking... The best thing about this documentary is that no matter how ultimate feel good movie and no matter that it is an advertisement of the unbreakable team spirit, it doesn't in any way seem like a fabricated movie that is obviously fishing for emotions. After all, it can't even do that, because the authors could hardly count on such a development at the beginning of their documentary about the “worst team in history". And especially in the first half, you can see in which direction their original intentions were moving, before they were lucky enough to get the incredibly important characters and their incredible story both on a purely sporting level and, above all, on a personal level.
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If hockey has its Miracle, football’s hot candidate for that is American Samoa. Next Goal Wins is the best sports documentary since the unrivaled Senna and the best underdog’s rise to fame story since Forrest Gump. Incredibly inspiring with a guaranteed feel-good atmosphere.
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