Next Goal Wins

The American Samoa national football team lost 31-0 to Australia in 2001, recorded as the heaviest defeat in international football. The team did not win a match in the decade that followed. In 2011, before the World Cup qualifiers, the federation brings in a coach from outside: the Dutchman Thomas Rongen. Arriving on the island he finds a squad that is not professional, is out of shape, and is used to losing. The documentary by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison follows the qualifying campaign. At the centre of the narrative is not winning but what scoring a single goal would mean. A loss in Rongen's own past is part of the story too. One of the players, Jaiyah Saelua, plays as fa'afafine and became the first trans player to appear in a World Cup qualifying match. The film does not make an issue of it; that the team treats it as entirely ordinary is the most striking thing in the narrative. Who it's for: Anyone interested in sports documentary, stories of losing teams, and Pacific island culture. Who it's not for: The narrative leans heavily on emotional peaks. The match sections also run long for a viewer with no interest in football.