THE STORY – Underdog U.S. soccer team advances to round of 16 in record-breaking 1994 World Cup on home soil. Features the team’s two-year camp journey, rare footage, and player interviews.
THE TEAM – Dave LaMattina & Chad Walker (Directors)
THE RUNNING TIME – 99 Minutes
In less than a hundred days, the United States will once again host the World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico. It’ll be the first time our country has had the honor of doing so since the last and only time, back in 1994. Now, it’s universally accepted in the United States that the World Cup isn’t just some sporting event we can scoff at. It’s a spectacle on par with the Olympics, where one of the world’s oldest sports assembles the greatest football players from around the world in what is essentially a sweaty, slide-tackle-fueled display of nationalism and athleticism in the highest order. But thirty-two years ago, the United States was far from maintaining the sort of representation in the world of the sport, not only to other nations but within our own country.
“No National League, No Stars, No Clue”
That line, all but perfectly, sets the stage for Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker’s time capsule of a sports documentary, “Summer of ‘94.” The perception of soccer, as we Americans call it, was far below its status today. Now, superstars like Lionel Messi rack up the big bucks and adoration down at South Beach as one of, if not the biggest, stars in the MLS (Major League Soccer). Back in the early 90’s, the MLS didn’t even exist. LaMattina and Walker’s introduction to the sentiment surrounding the sport sets the stage for this unbelievable underdog story of a group of unusual personalities banding together to form one of the greatest sports stories in history. Most of the film is not, in fact, about the men’s team’s actual run in the ‘94 World Cup, which constitutes the film’s final act.
LaMattina and Walker care far more about the team’s assembly itself, led by legendary coach Bora Milutinović. The shared feeling among all the young men who tried out was that, first and foremost, they didn’t want to embarrass their country on a national scale. This was to be the first time the United States ever held a World Cup on U.S. soil, and that came with an unbearable weight these men would have to carry. Especially when most of these players lacked any professional experience. Through never-before-seen archival footage, audiences watch these young men take a chance, all convening to create a recreational camp at Mission Veijo, whose existence was as unorthodox as Milutinović’s coaching methods. The plan was for these players to eat, sleep, train, and only think about soccer in the years leading up to the World Cup.
“Summer of ‘94” conforms to the more expected structure of sports documentaries, implementing testimonials filling in the footage with all the chaotic feelings they felt about the experience and the camaraderie they built with one another. It’s formulaic yet instantly charming to watch these men regain a flicker in their eyes as they talk about some of their fondest (and painful) memories from what was one of the most formative moments in their lives. If LaMattina and Walker failed to invest audiences in the relationships these men built with one another, the film would fall apart, reducing it to a far more generic film simply recounting these events. These players will win over non-sports enthusiasts and, somehow, still surprise viewers with dramatic revelations that are consistent across all great sports stories: injuries, firings, and dramatics. Billy McMillin’s editing, paired with LaMattina and Walker’s firm storytelling, makes this film stand out in the sea of sports documentaries that are abundant in today’s film ecosystem.
There’s enough in the film that, when it does build up to those first-round match-ups that forever changed these men’s lives and the influence of soccer in the United States, the emotional investment reaches an intensity that is essential to pulling off a successful sports tale. If anything, this is the rare occurrence where the concise storytelling in “Summer of ‘94” makes for a far more efficient outing than if LaMattina and Walker had dragged out the years of these men’s lives across a mini-series that would’ve surely lost its momentum the more it expanded. At its heart, “Summer of ‘94,” while not reaching the upper echelon of sports documentaries, is a feel-good documentary that is a worthwhile watch, especially as we all gear up for another run at the World Cup in a few months.
