Next Goal Wins documentary: Taika Waititi's sports movie inspiration explored

Director Taika Waititi's movie, Next Goal Wins, is based on the 2011 American Samoa men's soccer team, as they attempted to make it to the FIFA World Cup following a humiliating 31-0 loss to Australia. Drawing inspiration from Mike Brett and Steve Jamison's same-titled documentary from 2014, it takes great pleasure in defying traditional sports movies.

Following ten years of hurt and no development, the team hires the temperamental Dutch-American Thomas Rongen (played by Michael Fassbender) as coach. Despite being unqualified for the job, he rises to the occasion and helps salvage the American Samoan honor with a single goal.

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Who is Thomas Rongen?

Thomas Rongen is a Dutch-American football coach, who, for most of his life, played and coached in the US. In December 2016, he was appointed as the Chief Scout of the US men's national soccer team.

In 1996, Rongen led the Tampa Bay Mutiny to the greatest regular-season record and won the MLS Coach of the Year award. In 2014 his stint as a coach guiding the American Samoa national team was covered in a documentary.

In 2023, once again, Taika Waiti made a comedy-drama movie with the same name, Next Goal Wins in which he cast Michael Fassbender as Thomas Rongen. In 2014, what Rongen took on was an impossible task but what happened changed his life completely.

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What is the Next Goal Wins documentary about?

In the 2014 documentary, Next Goal Wins, the American Samoa national team is shown trying to salvage their honor after a humiliating 31-0 loss to Australia in an Oceania qualifier for the 2002 World Cup.

When it's time to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the local federation has lost all hope. In 2009, a storm hit the area and destroyed their playgrounds, killing dozens of people. Since there's no scope for their job, the younger players are leaving for US colleges or the US military.

Despite being tainted as the team with a lot of bad luck, they still have one card to play. They ask the US Soccer Federation to help them find a coach and the name that comes up is that of Thomas Rongen who is known to have played for the US under-20 team and several professional teams in the US.

He grew up playing in Amsterdam, where football was as sacred as a religion.

Thomas Rongen begins coaching the players, trying to make them stronger both mentally and physically. He works hard on their skills and game knowledge, and gets results in a very short period.

In return, this hardened professional coach too gets to learn a thing or two from the team.

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Is Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins based on a true story?

Next Goal Wins, by Taika Waititi, is based on a true story. It's about the American Samoan soccer team's fight to regain their honor after suffering a 31-0 loss to Australia in 2001. The team was considered the worst in the world, and coach Thomas Rongen was taken on board to train the underdogs for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

Waiti admitted to having made a few changes according to the demand of the script to make it look like good fiction. Just before the Next Goal Wins premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Waititi said:

"I saw the documentary a few years ago, and I thought it was a story I had to tell and twist it... Otherwise, you might as well watch the documentary."

Waititi intended a funny, warm story about a part of the Pacific for his movie Next Goal Wins so he brought back a few likeable characters together with a comic twist.