“Next Goal Wins” Review

Michael Fassbender takes command of the American Samoa national team in “Next Goal Wins”, a comedic sports biopic by Taika Waititi.

There are certain genres and stories that I tend to be more lenient to and, admit it, you have those too. Obviously, we don’t enjoy bad films but if we see films that are just perfectly fine in genres that we heavily enjoy, it’s more than enough for us. In the case of the underdog sports story, “Next Goal Wins” is a good example of a film that is full of likable characters, has a strong sense of heart and makes for a decent enough crowd pleaser that I would recommend seeing it. 

In the world of international soccer, the worst team in the world is American Samoa, whose 31-0 loss to Australia in the 2001 World Cup qualifiers. Ten years later, the team has not improved and has never even scored a single goal. With any victory seeming impossible, the task of coaching this team has fallen to Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender), a Dutch-American coach who has just been fired after the lackluster performance of his United States team. However, with determination and the support of the lovable players, Rongen finds the inspiration to take this team and mold them into a fearsome force.

Based on a true story that was captured in the excellent 2014 documentary “Next Goal Wins”, which shares the same name as this feature-film adaptation, this is the kind of story that we’ve seen so many times before in both fiction and reality. We see an untalented team of players find the strength within themselves to become great athletes and it’s been captured in so many films like “Rudy”, “Any Given Sunday”, “Dodgeball” and, most recently, in “Champions”. However, even though this is a pretty familiar story, it’s all about how this new version can feel fresh.

Helmed by Taika Waititi, who also cowrote the film with Iain Morris, “Next Goal Wins” is not on of his best films (especially compared to “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”, “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Jojo Rabbit”) but it still has enough likable performances, underdog spirit and a sense of heart to justify its existence. What I expected was a somewhat touching and somewhat silly sports film and that’s exactly what I got. The film’s zany comedic tone made “Next Goal Wins” a fun time and you can tell that all of the actors are having a tremendous amount of fun on set, an attitude that is easily infectious. 

As head coach, Fassbender could have easily given a cliched performance as a guy who feels that he’s better than this job and is a stick-in-the-mud because he has to coach an untalented team but he does find a likability to this character. You get a strong sense of how much he cares about soccer and how he wants everyone else to care as much as he does. However, his lack of empathy and the fact that he’s forgotten that he and his team are playing a game is what gives him something to learn. 

While there’s not a strong group dynamic compared to other sports films, “Next Goal Wins” does follow the journey of one player, Jaiyah Saelua (Kaimana), that commands the interest of the audience. Identifying as fa’afafine (the third gender of Polynesian culture), Jaiyah becomes the first transgender woman to compete in a World Cup qualifier and her character in the film is quite compelling. Not only because of the barriers she breaks but also because of how she challenges Rongen. Jaiyah and Rongen display a remarkable bond as student and mentor and they bring out the best in each other with Jaiyah becoming the team’s leader and Rongen gaining the understanding of his team and the culture which they represent. 

As with Waititi’s other films, there are plenty of laughs to be had but I felt that the jokes didn’t hit as hard as this filmmaker's other work. The film’s climatic match versus Tonga was also handled in a way that I felt was too comedic. After all, this is an important match against their rival team that could see American Samoa, at last, score a goal. But sometimes it feels that the film is keeping laughs as the primary goal instead of depicting a compelling game. While it didn’t stop me from enjoying the film, I do see these issues as holding the film back. 

In the case of “Next Goal Wins”, I could easily see this film pleasing quite a bit of people but then not leaving much of an impact. It’s enjoyable enough as both a sports film and a comedy but, from a filmmaker who’s made some truly hilarious and entertaining films and series, it does fall short of expectations.