“Nature made me a freak. Man made me a weapon. And God made it last too long,” Wolverine once said ... and that was before he even knew his strengths would be combined with a mutated adidas Predator Freak to from the ultimate soccer armament.
Last summer, National Women’s Soccer League was the first major pro team sports organization in America to return to play during the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup became a blueprint other leagues followed to safely return to play, and CBSViacom has created a one-hour special to commemorate the groundbreaking tournament. Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch NWSL Challenge Cup 2021 and the documentary on the 2020 competition.
In my opinion, there was no more beloved character in 2020 than Ted Lasso. During a difficult year, his eponymous show on Apple TV+ was a joy to watch. The first season had everything you could want from a series during a global pandemic: laughter, heart and soccer.
But Ted Lasso met his match on Friday, and that was another of 2020’s biggest stars: Trevor Noah.
The soccer world sat captivated as the two biggest names in the sport received the axe in the Champions League Round of 16. When the dust settled both Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus and Lionel Messi’s Barcelona had been reduced to rubble at the hands of Porto and Paris Saint-Germain.
A recent Netflix documentary about the legendary Brazilian soccer player Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pelé, tells a compelling story of the athlete’s rise to fame from 1950 to 1974. The 99-minute documentary, which includes interviews with the 80-year-old Pelé, shows Pelé’s spectacular life against the backdrop of Brazil’s politics. But the film fails to address deeper questions of race and class.
For those who have watched the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, you know there are alternate dimensions out there with different Spider-Heroes. Until Sunday, the Spider-Man of our dimension had yet to reveal themself.
We now know there is a Spider-Man in this dimension and he plays in the Polish Ekstraklasa. Frantisek Plach is a 29-year-old Slovakian goalkeeper who plays for Piast Gliwice in Poland’s top league.
For those of a certain vintage, this will be a wonderful trip down memory lane; for those whose fandom began in the 21st century, this should be an excellent introduction to the genius of one of Italy’s most celebrated footballers — on May 26, Baggio: The Divine Ponytail arrives on Netflix.
This biographical film from director Letizia Lamartire is billed as “a chronicle of the 22-year career of soccer star Roberto Baggio, including his difficult debut as a player and his deep rifts with some of his coaches.”
Amy Poehler has a new hit movie streaming on Netflix. “Moxie” was released March 3 and has been a regular in Netflix’s Top 10 since. While not technically a sports movie, the film features a depressingly accurate depiction of high school soccer in America.
David Beckham has reportedly signed a seven-figure deal with Disney+.
He will mentor a group of inner city players from east London as they try to change their lives through sport.
A source reports “David was very taken with the idea because it really reflects his own experiences growing up.”
The series is rumored to premiere in early 2022.
We live in a golden age of soccer documentaries. From the “Diego Maradona” documentary in 2019 to Amazon’s All or Nothing series and Netflix’s “Sunderland ‘Til I Die,” soccer fans have never had so many great inside looks at the players and clubs we’ve watched on the pitch for all our lives.