World Cup dreams may be over for the United States team after their loss to Belgium, but the global tournament has brought renewed interest to the sport this summer for many U.S. fans, especially with games spread across North America and rowdy international fans bringing some levity and joy. World Cup fever has taken over the globe, as it does every four years, so if you\u2019re looking for something to watch in between matches and highlights, here are some related movies and series to keep feeding the soccer-obsessed.<\/p>\n
Even though the U.S. is now out of the tournament, you can watch their run up to this year\u2019s World Cup with the HBO Sports docuseries \u201cU.S. Against the World: Four Years with the Men\u2019s National Soccer Team.\u201d This five-episode docuseries directed by Rand Getlin and Luke Korver chronicles the team\u2019s journey to the 2026 tournament. That journey might now be over (until the next Cup), but it\u2019s fascinating to watch and get to know the players\u2019 life stories in more detail. Stream it on HBO Max.<\/p>\n
However, there are more international legends and their stories to take in too, if you want to really demonstrate your knowledge of the beautiful game. Also streaming on HBO Max is \u201cDiego Maradona,\u201d a documentary about the legendary Argentinian player, directed by Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia and constructed from 500 hours of never-before-seen footage, focusing on his career in the 1980s playing for Argentina and SSC Napoli. <\/p>\n
Maradona shared Fifa Player of the Century honors with the equally (if not more) legendary Pel\u00e9, the Brazilian player whose single name is synonymous with the game and the only man to have won three World Cup titles. He too has his own 2021 documentary, directed by Ben Nicholas and David Tryhorn, which includes archival footage, interviews with Pel\u00e9 and his former teammates, and looks at the 12-year period from 1958 to 1970 when he transformed from a young superstar to a national hero, during an incredibly turbulent period in Brazil\u2019s history. Stream \u201cPel\u00e9\u201d on Netflix.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a narrative feature film about the young Pel\u00e9, \u201cPel\u00e9: Birth of a Legend,\u201d directed by Jeff and Michael Zimbalist, about the young street soccer star leading his country to the World Cup. Vincent D\u2019Onofrio plays his manager Vicente Feola while Kevin de Paula plays a young Pel\u00e9. Stream \u201cPel\u00e9: Birth of a Legend\u201d on Kanopy, Tubi, or rent it on other platforms.<\/p>\n
The Zimbalist brothers also made a soccer documentary with the 30 for 30 doc \u201cThe Two Escobars,\u201d which draws parallels between two Colombians: notorious drug trafficker Pablo Escobar and soccer star Andr\u00e9s Escobar. It\u2019s a fascinating film about sports, culture, crime and politics. \u201cThe Two Escobars\u201d is streaming on Tubi.<\/p>\n
But soccer isn\u2019t just about superstars, it\u2019s about underdogs too. The 2014 documentary \u201cNext Goal Wins,\u201d follows Dutch coach Thomas Rongen leading the American Samoan soccer team, turning them around from losers to winners. Directed by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison, the film is available to rent on Prime Video and Apple TV. In 2023, Taika Waititi adapted the doc into a narrative feature starring Michael Fassbender as Rongen. Stream it on Tubi or rent it on Apple or Amazon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Cup dreams may be over for the United States team after their loss to Belgium, but the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-789316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789316","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=789316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}