5 shows and movies to watch before the World Cup kicks off
Okay so the World Cup is happening and even if you have never once cared about soccer, something about a global tournament just makes the whole thing feel like an event. The flags, the chaos, the strangers screaming in bars. There is a vibe to it. And the best way to get into that vibe before the opening match? A watchlist.
These five picks are for everyone who wants to feel the soccer energy without actually having to know what offside means.
Ted Lasso
Start here. Always start here. Ted Lasso is an American college soccer coach who gets hired to manage an English Premier League team despite knowing absolutely nothing about the sport. What follows is three seasons of found family, workplace slow burns, and more genuine human warmth than you will find almost anywhere else on television. Jason Sudeikis plays Ted with this disarming optimism that somehow never feels annoying, and the supporting cast around him is stacked. Rebecca and Keeley alone make it worth it. It is a soccer show in the same way a love story is technically about two people meeting. The sport is just the setting.
Bend It Like Beckham
A certified classic that deserves a rewatch every few years at minimum. Jess (Parminder Nagra) wants to play soccer. Her family wants her to learn to cook a proper Indian meal and find a nice husband. The tension between those two things drives one of the best coming-of-age stories of the 2000s. Keira Knightley as Jules is her best friend and teammate and honestly one of the best on-screen friendships ever. There is also a friends-to-lovers arc with the coach that is very much of its era but the chemistry is real. The film is genuinely funny, genuinely moving, and it gets something true about being caught between two worlds.
She's the Man
This one is unhinged in the best way and we are not apologizing for including it. Viola (Amanda Bynes) disguises herself as her twin brother to join a rival school's soccer team after her own team gets cut. She then falls for her roommate Duke (Channing Tatum) who is falling for the girl Viola is pretending not to be. The logic does not fully hold up. Nothing about it fully holds up. That is not the point. The point is the chaos, the gender swap energy, and Channing Tatum before he was Channing Tatum. A perfect comfort watch.
Goal!
A 2005 underdog story that is genuinely underseen. Santiago Muñez is a young Mexican-American living in LA who gets spotted by a scout and ends up trialing for Newcastle United. The soccer scenes are surprisingly good, the fish-out-of-water dynamic in rainy England is charming, and there is a real romance with a nurse named Roz that runs quietly through the whole film. It has that early 2000s energy where every frame feels slightly warm and golden even when things go wrong. Watch it if you want something with actual stakes and a satisfying payoff.
The Beautiful Game
The most recent pick on this list and the one most likely to make you actually cry. The Beautiful Game follows a group of homeless players from different countries competing in the Homeless World Cup in Rome. Micheal Ward is the reason to watch, but the whole ensemble delivers. It is less about soccer as competition and more about what soccer means to people who have lost almost everything else. The found family energy is Ted Lasso-level and the setting in Rome adds something genuinely beautiful to a story that could have been heavy but mostly just feels full of heart.
Five picks, one common thread: soccer is never really just soccer. It is always about something bigger. Which honestly makes it the perfect backdrop for the kind of storytelling we are here for.
