Once in a Lifetime

Howard Cosell was a bright, ultra-charismatic individual. His on-air bouts with boxing legend Muhammad Ali are nothing short of classic. When fans listened to the man, they absorbed every syllable as if it were gospel. So, when the famed ABC commentator went on record to say “soccer will be the biggest big league of them all,” few had reason to debate the declaration. In the late 70s and early 80s, the game was, indeed, absolutely titanic.

According to the entertaining soccumentary, Once in a Lifetime, the New York Cosmos, the forerunner of America’s adoration for futbol, would routinely pack 75,000-seat Giants Stadium. There were cheerleaders, tailgaters, TV crews, groupies, the whole nine. But beyond the pom-poms and circumstance, there was much disorganization. Pele, the game’s biggest name ever, was signed to the team in ’74 to right a franchise –and the entire North American Soccer League, for that matter- that was borderline laughable on the field. Pele did help passionate owner Steve Ross at the box office, but things didn’t get better in the standings until colorful foreign stars like Giorgia Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer came. Unfortunately, the talent would bump heads, a looong time before Zidane ever had his first World Cup dreams.

Directors Paul Crowder (Dogtown and Z-Boys editor) and John Dower analyze the team’s ascension and subsequent decline marvelously through sharp video footage of the time and insightful interviews with front-office brass, players (Chinaglia is a riot) and outsiders like Mia Hamm who were affected by the movement. Oddly, Pele himself isn’t interviewed in the movie. Maybe he was silently protesting the cheesy music that came before each mood swing of the camera. That’s the only explanation that makes sense, seeing as how every other scene plays out like a perfect tribute to 70s culture as a whole and the U.S. and soccer first canoodling in particular. Grade: B+