German fans still recovering from the team’s failure to advance at WC 2018 should return to watching Die Mannschaft. It is a nicely crafted love letter to Joachim Löw and the 2014 German National Team. It is a tribute to German football, showing everything the German Federation (DFB) did to optimize the team to win WC 2014.
Fans should be excited to see so many insider views: how the teammates live, relax, sleep and eat during the 8 weeks of the tournament, how they travel, where they stay, how they joke around, plus scenes in the locker room. There are also many shots of how Löw and his staff evaluate, plan, and strategize in football coaching notebooks. In the end, viewers experience the massive victory parade in Berlin from aboard the players’ bus.
Although the documentary begins with Germany’s historic 7-1 semi-final win over Brazil, the soccer is only a very small part of the documentary. But it does cover all of Germany’s goals and 2 of the concussions.
Other than adulation, if there is one theme from this documentary, it is that teamwork is key to victory. I guess they won’t be doing a WC 2018 documentary sequel.
While this film was very popular with German fans, if you’re neither fanboy nor fangirl, it might not be that interesting to watch. For USMNT fans, you should know that as far as environment, USSoccer made a similar attempt to keep its team happy and shielded during the WC 2014 campaign.
6 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 6
Resources:
- Released: 2014-11-11 (Germany)
- In German with English sub-titles
- IMDB
- Director: Martin Christ , Jens Gronheid , Ulrich Voigt
- Stars: Joachim Löw , Thomas Müeller
- Watch the Trailer
