When you think of sports North Americans are crazy about, soccer doesn’t come very high on the list. ‘We don’t have the attention span for a game that is continuous and free flowing as soccer,’ said one sports journo. ‘We need the artificial stops and starts to indulge in beer and chips.’

But in the days of flares and short shorts, soccer was huge. And this film is evidence of it. It follows the rise and fall of the New York Cosmos, America’s all-star soccer team that shot to fame in the early 1970s. Warner Bros mogul Steve Ross, invested millions to lure international soccer stars, like Pele, to the team. It worked. Soccer was bigger than baseball. The Cosmos’ played to record crowds. Heck, even Henry Kissinger and Mick Jagger got into it. Maybe our A-League teams should take a leaf out of the Cosmos’ book.

You’ll get a better appreciation of US soccer after watching this. It’s something SBS should have shown before the recent World Cup, so we wouldn’t snigger, ‘Stick to gridiron boys.’ This film has a seriously funky soundtrack, cool screen splits ala Charlie’s Angels, and, where would a ’70s style movie be without afros and handlebar mou’s. Look out for Cosmos’ former Vice-President, Raphael de la Sierra, who has some hilarious lines. There’s even a baddie in megalomaniac Italian striker, Giorgio Chinaglia. ‘If you don’t have an ego in sport, you’re not going to go far,’ he said.

Oddly, there are interviews with all the former players except Pele, who was credited with ‘opening a new frontier’ with soccer. And while the flashy screen shots and close-ups are great, you kinda get tired of it after a while. At 97-minutes, this film would have been better watched at home. Oh, and an interest in soccer is preferable, but not compulsory.

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