What comes under underdog? This documentary chronicles American Samoa's 2014 World Cup campaign. We say campaign: we mean preliminary round matches. The same team made footballing history and the planet's back pages when their efforts to qualify for 2002 produced a series of catastrophic results, including a whopping 31-goal defeat by Australia.
At the beginning of Next Goal Wins, the World's official Worst Team are tied for 204th and last in the Fifa rankings, and have been outscored 229-12 since starting international play in 1994. Ouch.
Enter Dutch coach Thomas Rongen, a loud, sweary, smoking guv'nor of the old school: picture an Amsterdammer Brian Clough in cargo pants. Player-turned-coach Rongen has a respectable track record in North American football dating back to the late 1970s. Can he knock the good-natured, kind-hearted, mostly amateur American Samoan side into shape? Will they ever win a game? Will they ever master the slide tackle?
This engaging, feel-good sports doc is commendably respectful of its subjects. The film-makers are keen to remind us that sorrowful goalkeeper Nicky Salapu – who stood in goal during that fateful match against Australia – is more than a comic meme.
There is, moreover, a pleasing melancholy to counteract the punch-the-air sporting dramatics. Rongen, we learn, has lost his 18-year-old daughter in a car crash. Most of the territory’s young men join the military and leave as soon as they are old enough. The region was badly affected by the 2009 earthquake and tsunami.
Against all that, the locals are cheeringly positive. The weather is balmy. The islanders talk repeatedly about community and inclusivity. In this spirit, even at the bottom of the Fifa pile, they genuinely seem to cherish and celebrate their national squad. How fitting that fabulous centre back Jaiyah Saelua – Fifa's first transgender player – emerges as a key figure in Rongen's team.
'Tis the season for over use of sporting cliches noting the romance of the World Cup. But if you can't find it in Next Goal Wins, you're not going to find it anywhere.
