‘The Game of Their Lives’: The US Soccer Team Creates History

This installment of ‘Movies for Teens and Young Adults’ celebrates the virtues of a victorious underdog.

The U.S. team that played against England during the 1950 FIFA World Cup, in “The Game of Their Lives.” IFC Films

This inspirational soccer (not American football) drama draws on American writer Geoffrey Douglas’s book. It dramatizes the shocking U.S. victory over England in a crucial game of the 1950 FIFA World Cup. Check the Internet Movie Database website plot summary, cast, reviews, and ratings.

Not a true-to-the-letter documentary but a truer-to-the-spirit film, “The Game of Their Lives” (2005) tells of a disparate group of young men who formed a national team when America’s global-level soccer prowess was anything but.