Goal 2: Living the “Real Madrid” Dream

By: Dancy | September 9th, 2008

So was it worth it? Was it worth driving 45 minutes each way, with lashing rain on your roof, to go see it on the big screen? Yes. It was worth every dime, every single rain-pounding minute of driving in the dark.

Goal 2: Living the Dream had debuted ages ago in the rest of the world, but it had only just come to America, debuting in theaters on Aug 29. And it wasn’t just any theater – it was a limited engagement, meaning you had to dig out the maps and magnifying glass in order to find a town that even played it.

For me in Chicago, this meant the first town that I found was no longer playing it, only the second week into the engagement (this week), and I would have to drive all the way out to dinky Addison – in the middle of nowhere – and squint at the road signs the whole way because the rain had made the evening totally pitch dark. The parking lot was basically empty when I pulled in. There were maybe 5 cars – tops. And the bored high school kids behind the concession stand – they’d even shut down the ticket line, so I had to buy it there – looked perplexed that I wanted to see this movie, this “Goal 2”. Guys. Put down your Sidekicks and go try it!

The opening sequence was a masterpiece. My God! It was worth the whole damn thing, the whole trip, just to see Sergio Ramos try to defend against an in-form Ronaldinho vs Barca. It wasn’t just a game – no, the magnitude of this encounter was blown up 10 times, 100 times, so that the crowd, the size of the stadium, the sounds, the colors, the close-ups – all became life and death itself. And in the middle of it all, was Real Madrid, being torn to shreds by Barcelona, and especially Sergio, young, brave Sergio, all of 19 years old and just signed, trying to defend his team against the likes of a Brazilian superstar. But I was enthralled. It wasn’t the results I cared about – but the drama. This, was cinema magic.

Unfortunately, this is not the main purpose of the movie. The main story is of Santi Munez, and how he copes with being a Real Madrid player in Spain while his girlfriend remains stubbornly tied to Newcastle, England. They have ups and downs, Santi also finds an estranged family member, but mostly, it follows the same predictability as Goal 1. Munez simply isn’t a very interesting character, but you didn’t pay to see him, right?

You paid to see the rest of it – every scene that features Real Madrid – and they are the real deal. The locker room! I can’t believe I’m excited about a locker room, but when you see it, you’ll understand. The players juggling a ball and relaxing, the walls covered with giant posters of each player, with their name plastered over their locker and bench space. WAAA! And the training pitch! Ah, such a brilliant sun shines over it, kisses it, that the players training over it seem to be blessed by heaven itself. And the hot tub . . haha, Guti and Iker get a small scene here that ends with a TV girl saying “grow up, Iker!” And what is up with Beckham’s hair?? Was it really like that in 2005-6? Salgado makes an appearance too – he cleans up nice.

The games are priceless. It is the 2005-6 season, and the Valencia game is featured, where they showed a close-up of Sergio’s incredible save from Villa, sliding his foot out just in time to drive that ball away, before rolling uncontrollably head over heels into the netting. There’s another game that was played in a floating snowstorm, and another, where tempers flared between Guti and their rivals. And between them all, in glimpses, you saw Zidane, Beckham, Raul, Ronaldo, Iker, Roberto Carlos, and a certain former #10 that I won’t name . . all, larger than life.

The final game is between Real and Arsenal in the Champions League, and if you were mad back in 2006 that they lost that game . . well, I guess I won’t spoil it here. But on the drive home – all 45 minutes of it – I still could not get out of my head that opening sequence, that virtuoso of a performance that seems all the more magical precisely because it was Real v Barca. I mean, this is where Barca embarrassed Real, right? 0-3 at home? Why would I enjoy seeing that?

Because, believe me, told in this style of filmmaking, using this style of fast-paced camera work and close-ups – you will completely forget your ordinary tactics and positioning and anything sports-fan-related, and succumb to the pure joy and immensity of the cinema. The players are at war, and the game becomes a story, an opera – punctuated further by the deafening roar of the crowd and the staticco of the announcers – resulting in something that you will never be able to see in real life.

To run just a few steps behind as Ronaldinho skims Sergio inside out . . to feel the incredible force of the ball as it rips through the net beyond Iker’s outstretched hands . . go, go while you can still catch it, on the biggest screen of all, where it belongs.