Okay, I admit that I'm a long time fan of sports films. They don't have to be classic films in order for me to find them enjoyable. Sure, some rise to the top for me. Field of Dreams is one of my favorite pieces of melodramatic cinema and still brings a tear to my eye (not that anyone will ever notice) whenever I watch it.

BEGIN SHORTREVIEW OF GOAL!

Make no mistake. Goal is not a classic film. But it is a decently put together piece and worth a rental from your local blockbuster if you like sports films. If you don't, then rent The 40 Year Old Virgin instead.

END SHORTREVIEW OF GOAL!

The story is about young Santiago Muñoz, a young illegal Mexican immigrant living in LA. He is a talented soccer player who just happens to catch the eye of a retired football scout, Glen Foy. Thanks to Foy's encouragement, Santiago travels to England in the hopes of playing for Newcastle United.

The story pulls in just about every sports-movie cliché ever used. Santiago has a poor relationship with his father who doesn't support his son's dream, Santiago fails his first time out but succeeds due to his perseverance and support from his friends, Santiago begins to hang out with another player who at first seems to be a bad influence but the two resolve their differences and become close friends, Santiago gets the woman that none of the other players on the team can get, Santiago suffers personal tragedy but then overcomes that tragedy to ultimate succeed.

Santiago also suffers an ailment, but the writers put a nice twist on this cliché. He suffers from Asthma, which of course will not hurt his chances of becoming a star, but since he is uneducated about his sickness, he keeps it a secret. This secret nearly costs him his career.

Where the movie succeeds, is in its low key nature. Unlike some of the more traditional Hollywood fair like Any Given Sunday or Remember the Titans (both films which I enjoyed, by the way), Goal! Simply seems more subdued and less over the top. Whereas the other films go out of their way to take their plots to the extremes, Goal is comfortable enough in its simplicity to just tell the story.

The other area where it succeeds is that it becomes the first major soccer film. It is simply because most high budget films are made in the US, practically the only country in the world that doesn't have a cultural emotional investment in the game, that the world's most popular sport has not received proper cinematic attention. The producers also shamelessly aimed this movie at two big non-US markets: England and Latin America.

From reading the comments of online posters, I noticed that the English audience tended to be highly critical of technical points in the film. They criticized the fact that Santiago wore a pendant on the field, that the soccer scenes weren't shot correctly, and that the Newcastle team wasn’t portrayed accurately, among other things. The Latin Americans with whom I watched the film didn't seem to care about those details and became thoroughly wrapped up in the story. Despite the obvious plot twists and predictable ending, they found Santiago to be a likeable character and enjoyed elements of the Mexican trying to make his way in English Premier League soccer.

I’m not sure how much money this film actually made, but it appears that there are two sequels in the works, one set in Spain and the other at the World Cup. It seems safe to say that Santiago Muñoz's career turns out to be a successful one.