{"id":669191,"date":"2026-05-14T15:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T15:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/669191\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T15:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T15:38:09","slug":"the-match-an-exciting-accessible-documentary-about-soccer-and-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/669191\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Match’: An Exciting, Accessible Documentary About Soccer and War"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEven the most casual soccer fan knows \u201cThe Hand of God,\u201d Argentine legend Diego Maradona\u2019s controversial goal against England in the 1986 FIFA World Cup. The volleyball-like palm strike should have been disallowed, but paved the way for some of the most magical sporting moments shortly thereafter. However, \u201cThe Match<\/a>\u201d by Juan Cabral<\/a> and Santiago Franco<\/a>, based on the book by Andr\u00e9s Brugo, isn\u2019t just concerned with this singular moment. Through personal testimonies and geopolitical histories, this documentary unspools the iconic quarter-final by placing it within a larger, clamorous context, resulting in one of the most absorbing and accessible documentaries ever made about the sport.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the June 1986 fixture as its centerpiece, \u201cThe Match\u201d plays temporal hopscotch, rapidly denoting the history of not only soccer, but of the Falkland Islands, the source of a dispute that would ignite an all-out English-Argentine war in 1982. (Or \u201cFour years until The Match,\u201d as the film notes). Its structure is deceptively simple. In stark black-and-white vignettes, men from both teams, now in their sixties, calmly reflect on the buildup while watching footage projected on enormous movie screens, placing these former TV stars within a cinematic context. They are both subjects and narrators, making personal the political tumult that was once foisted upon them, and which \u2014 through various media interviews \u2014 they were forced to answer for. Meanwhile, in color, archival footage strings us along, bringing us closer to the present, as the World Cup returns to Mexico after 40 years.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth anniversary and pop document, \u201cThe Match\u201d mirrors the two countries\u2019 sporting histories with their geopolitical rivalry, setting the stage for a perfect storm of symphonic gameplay, in which the late Maradona \u2014 for better and worse \u2014remains the unimpeachable standout. Like the bout itself, the film\u2019s first half lays the foundations for all the drama, which its subjects (key among them, Englishman Gary Lineker and Argentine Jorge Valdano) look back upon wistfully, and even excitedly. <\/p>\n

\n\tNo matter how much time goes by, there\u2019s a certain thrill to re-watching this particular footage, and doing so with the added context of everything from the mood in Azteca Stadium to both countries\u2019 joint contribution to creating Red and Yellow cards (soccer\u2019s cautioning system against violent play) makes it all the more delicious. Knowing the result doesn\u2019t make the film any less invigorating, but as it happens, knowing nothing about the sport at all is just as rewarding too, as a defining peak into why \u201cthe beautiful game\u201d is so globally beloved.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough \u201cThe Match\u201d seldom delves into the political details of the Falkland War, it features just enough footage of both countries\u2019 leaders (Leopoldo Galtieri, Margaret Thatcher) to position soccer as a proxy battle fought by fans looking to exorcise the demons of wounded national pride. Caught up in this emotional melee are the players themselves, who \u2014 four decades on \u2014 have mostly come to peace with the skirmish, but occasionally find their old wounds picked at by the narrative at hand.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film is essayistic in nature, and often forensic in its depiction of certain moments (the aforementioned hand ball especially), but it\u2019s never academic. Its riveting rush lies in aping the structure of soccer itself, especially from the era, between its 4:3 aspect ratio \u2014 mirroring TV sets at the time \u2014 and its approximately 90-minute runtime, the length of the average game. In the process, it follows the very same ebb and flow of excitement and fleeting downtime that makes watching a World Cup match such an enthralling prospect. Most of all, it allows former rivals the catharsis, through intimate close ups, of being on the same side for once \u2014 the side of sport, and the side of cinema \u2014 as they revisit their heated enmity, and all the baggage that made that fateful morning such an enduring, magnetic flashpoint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even the most casual soccer fan knows \u201cThe Hand of God,\u201d Argentine legend Diego Maradona\u2019s controversial goal against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,5328,75,246717,337,246718,246719],"class_list":["post-669191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-entertainment","tag-juan-cabral","tag-movies","tag-santiago-franco","tag-the-match"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}