Origins of American Soccer: "Once in a Lifetime"

The documentary, "Once in a Lifetime" is about the successes and downfalls of the first professional men's soccer team in the United States, the New York Cosmos. Steve Ross, also the owner of Warner Brothers, was the founder of American soccer, which came to be known as the North American Soccer League. By creating the New York Cosmos and the North American Soccer League, soccer slowly adapted to American culture in the 1970's and 1980's. In my opinion, soccer is that one sport that either you love or you hate. Some people have something against soccer, however, the people that love it, really LOVE it. This documentary showed that soccer is a game of passion no matter where you're from.

The first coach of the New York Cosmos was a British man named Gordon Bradley. He coached the team and brought them to a new home field in New York City to help them to attract more fans. Steve Ross knew that if the team was to become bigger, they would need a big name to represent them. The famous Brazilian soccer player, Pele, had retired from his career in Brazil and with much persuasion and money, Pele was signed to the New York Cosmos for a total of $4.5 million dollars. This contract was 14 years and included more than just soccer. Since Steve Ross saw not only a great soccer player, but also a "global franchise" and major attraction of fans. Pele had completely retired from soccer and then came to American to play. That is love and passion for the game. He loved it so much that he wanted to bring it to America even after he had retired.

Not only did Pele help to popularize soccer in America, but the team consisted of fourteen different nations as well. All of these nationalities of the men brought different aspect of their soccer to the New York Cosmos. Just by the way that the players were talking during the documentary, you could tell that creating that team and making soccer popular in America was the time of their lives. This was because of the passion and love they had and still have for soccer. Also, the perseverance that the New York Cosmos had even when they were starting out, and not getting as much attention as they had hoped, they still persisted in becoming known. This in turn helped America discover the game of soccer.

If I had to have one criticism about this movie however, it would be that they didn't talk about the success of women's soccer at all. It was only about how the New York Cosmos helped develop men's soccer in the United States. I understand that they documentary was about them, but they could have mentioned at least once that it also helped to recognize women's soccer as well. If I had to rate this documentary I would give it a 3 out of 5 stars.