It’s kind of strange that, of the little information on the web about Soccer Dog: European Cup, most of it is incorrect. Back in 2012, the imdb description used to say that this movie was about a pornstar running a Scottish team. Other sites say this sequel to Soccer Dog: The Movie is about an orphan, a tournament, etc. They’re all wrong — I guess no reviewers actually watch this movie about a dog.
So, I hereby set the record straight. Soccer Dog: European Cup takes place in Scotland and is about a 30ish pub owner and captain of the town team, who finds out that he is the father of a 13 year old boy from New York.
The boy moves in and befriends a stray dog. But this dog has escaped from a secret lab where it was injected with a chemical that gives him the intelligence of an average male human — i.e., smart enough to play soccer. Using the dog in a friendly game against a top European team, the new dad wagers his pub against the visitors’ European Cup trophies.
Other comments
This movie was released the same year as Euro 2004, so I assume the title was just a shameless attempt to leverage fan interest. It would make sense, since the moviemakers are pretty shameless in everything they do in this movie. Fortunately, the resulting film is not bad and is silly fun.
The goalie has a fair resemblance to Mel Gibson and dresses like Braveheart. The three McNerd brothers reincarnate the Bash Brothers but with Braveheart wigs. The villain knocks off Dr Strangelove. It looks like the whole movie was shot in Los Angeles with maybe one Scottish actor. (The cast reveals itself in an extra on the DVD.)
There is quite a bit of soccer in the movie, and it’s all pretty bad. I can’t tell if the dog’s play was all CGI. This is probably a good movie for kids except for one scene where the pub owner head butts his rival. See this article for a list of all the soccer dog movies.
5 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 5
Resources:
- Release Date: 2004-08-03 (DVD)
- DVD is in std def with some extras (deleted scenes, bloopers, and meet the cast)
- IMDB
- Director: Sandy Tung
- Watch the Trailer
