Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos

Dir. Paul Crowder (2006) 97 min.

"Giddy, gossipy and endearingly unslick, Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos chronicles the rise and fall of the most famous soccer team in the United States with slapdash glee. Fielding heroes and villains, gentlemen and rogues, booze and women, it plays like the “Dynasty” of sports documentaries. There’s even a little soccer. Via newsreels and interviews (both winking and candid) we watch a ragtag team of part-time players move from a scrubby field that had to be spray-painted green before games to a 1977 North American Soccer League championship playoff in Giants Stadium in front of 77,691 fans." — Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times