Goal The Dream Began Film Analysis

For Sport Film Analysis assignment I decided to analyze a movie named Goal! The Dream Begins, which Is a film about a young Mexican that goes by the name of Santiago Muñez, who lives in the not so good part of los Angeles, is given a chance to achieve his dream of playing professional soccer by trying out for an English club team named Newcastle United when he is spotted by a talent scout with contacts with Newcastle united. In the Film Santiago Muñez is portrayed as a an overachiever who even though he is working two jobs as a gardener and cook at a Chinese restaurant he gives himself time to play in a recreational soccer team and is always wanting to give superior and impressive results through the excessive effort that he portrays in the game. As he is starting as a rookie in a low level of competition in soccer he has been playing this sport since he was a child and at the
age of 22 he is still continuing his passion in the sport as he does whatever it takes to be involved in soccer as he manages to do anything to play as in the film he used pieces of cardboard to act as shin guards as he didn’t have any with him in which he would even put his leg protection at risk. As he aspires to go big in soccer he does not receive support from his father as he believes going pro in the sport is something that he wasn’t meant to go towards for and that his life is meant to work and work and work like how the rest of people who are immigrants do when they enter the united states.
This is seen as a setback to him as he is very close to his father but still goes to show you how much of a passion he has to continue playing even though his father found Santiago’s savings from his earnings from his two jobs in which he hid in a boot under his bed is found by his dad and he uses it to buy a truck to prevent Santiago from achieving his goal, which took Santiago to a state of disappointment and anger from frustration due to the result of what his father did. In this scene the frustration aggression theory can be seen as his fathers actions cause frustration in Santiago as his all his hard work that he sacrificed to assist him in achieving his goal went downhill causing him to put aggression towards his father by yelling gat him and bumping into him as he walked away from
him. Unlike his father he has tremendous support from his grandmother and brother who provide him the funds to travel to England after they found out what his father did with Santiago’s funds and when he is spotted by a scout one day who like how Santiago played. As Santiago acquired the funds to travel to England he had met up with the scout who goes under the name of Glen Floy, who was a former player for Newcastle United take Santiago to tryout for the team. As Santiago goes through his trial day it does not go as well as he expected as the level of competition was too high for him and resulted in him struggling got make an impression towards the coach and club staff. As the trail ends he mentions to the scout that he will try better the next day, but he tells Santiago that there is no next time and that this was his only chance, which leads him to disappointment and sense of failure. As the days go on Santiago keeps on practicing and training to hopefully receive another trail another time, and one day he sneaks into the clubs home stadium and practices on the field and is being looked on by the clubs coach from the stands with him being unaware that he’s being watched. The coach suddenly sees potential in him and sees how he’s always giving effort and sees how well he trains and gives Santiago a talk and allows him to come back to train with the team for a 1 month trial. This shows the resilience upon Santiago on how he went through the obstacle of competing in a state of high competition which he wasn’t used to which led him to failure and from that failure he learned how to overcome it and receive a positive mindset to come back stronger to which at the end led him to impress the coach again and give him an extended trial. As he goes through the month trial he ends up being looked upon as a rookie and incompatible player to the club by some players, which gives Santiago obstacles to go through and overcome in trying to make a good impression to other teammates. Despite him having other teammates show negativity towards him a star player of the team who is named Gavin Harris sees the struggle on Santiago as he can relate to his experiences that he is going through and sees the potential that he can contribute to the team and decides to take him under his wing to assist him in proving that Santiago is a good asset to the team and to help him prove that he has potential to be a star professional player to his disbelieving dad, who said that Santiago would never achieve he status of being a professional soccer player. This scene displays how good coping strategies can lead to being a healthy and efficient athlete in this case Santiago is receiving Support from his Grandmother and brother with the addition of the coach who gave him a second chance, the scout who believed he can be an official player for the club and receiving tremendous assistance from his peer star player. At the end of his month trial he ends up receiving a contract for the club to be in the reserves team of the club which brought much excitement to Santiago who has accomplished his goal of achieving the first step to being a professional soccer player and has set the new goal of now wanting to move up to the first team from the reserves team. As he goes through the life of a professional soccer player he experiences challenges and setbacks such as dealing with critics, sponsorship’s, team relationships, the sports media, paparazzi, and maintaining a good relationship with a nurse that he met one day during his physical checkups for the club. This could have easily led Santiago to go through the process of burnout having to train everyday and handle all these obstacles but in the film it shows how Santiago is good at managing his stress levels and keeping a positive mindset with the help of his positive coping strategies such as all the support he uses to maintain a healthy state of mind. As the film approaches to the end he finally receives news from the head coach that he has been performing well and wants to start him off with his first game with the first team and introduce him to a bigger audience. His father back home receives news that his son is making headlines to start off the with the first team and he suddenly feels proud of his son and tells Santiago’s grandmother how he was wrong and denies himself and wishes the best for his son in his career. As the day of Santiago’s start with the first team approaches he receives news that his father has died of a heart attack and this hits Santiago in feeling depressed and wishing his father would know about his accomplishments, As the day has finally arrived for Santiago to make his best impression with the first team he receives news in the form of a phone call from his grandmother that his father was proud of him on all his milestones in soccer and that he wished him the best in starving further in his career which led Santiago to comeback from his state of depression and get back on his feet to make his father proud. The Film ends with Santiago Starting off in the game when the team is down 3 to 1 and Santiago two goals and gives an assist to his teammate which resulted in the team wining and Santiago receiving tremendous positive reviews on the newspaper and the media on how he will become the next star player for Newcastle United. I overall thought this was an exciting film to watch especially if you’re a soccer fanatic like me, and I would definitely recommend anybody to watch this film.