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'Once in a Lifetime' chronicles both a team and an era

The kicky soccer documentary "Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos" accomplishes the minor miracle of making you mourn a sports team you likely never knew existed in the first place.

Miramax Films 'Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos' B The verdict: Flashy, funny, high-spirited. Directors: Paul Crowder and John Dower Cast: Johann Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Shep Messing, Werner Roth, Giorgio Chinaglia Run time: 97 minutes Release date: July 7, 2006 Rating: Rated PG-13 for language and some nudity. On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Once in a Lifetime' Go see it 92.31% 12 Make it a matinee 7.69% 1 Wait to rent 0.00% 0 Don't bother 0.00% 0

Chronicling the improbable rise and disappointing fall of the New York Cosmos, the most famous and successful team in the now long-defunct North American Soccer League, the film captures those few heady years in the '70s and early '80s when America teetered on the brink of joining the rest of the planet in its passion for football (the kind that doesn't call for helmets, shoulder pads and 43-inch necks).

But by 1984, the dream was dead and so was the NASL.

Launched in 1971, the team's up-and-down fortunes seemed to symbolize the wavering fortunes of American soccer. After a rocky start — they played on a litter-strewn field on Randall's Island that had variously housed a prison and an insane asylum — the team pulled itself together. By 1977, when they won one of several NASL championships, they were playing to more than 77,000 fans in Giants Stadium.

As co-directors Paul Crowder and John Dower ("Dogtown and Z-Boys" and "Riding Giants") tell it, the players were a colorful lot, on and off the field.

At goooooal!!! level, the roster was studded with international stars: Giorgio Chinaglia, an obnoxious Italian showboater who in his interviews clearly enjoys being cast in a Machiavellian role; Franz Beckenbauer, a courteous German sensation; and Brazil's legendary Pelé (who declined to be interviewed, an unfortunate hole in the movie).

The off-the-field power players included ebullient media tycoon Steve Ross, who put the full force of Warner Communications behind his dream to sell America on soccer; Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, the Atlantic Records executives whose passion introduced Ross to the game; even Henry Kissinger, who was enlisted to woo the Brazilian government into letting their national treasure (as Pelé was officially deemed) go.

As a result, the movie has an amusing "Rashômon"-style mix of contradictory testimony. Though everyone does agree on one thing: Chinaglia was an absolute jackass.

Crowder and Dower view this underdog story as a reflection not only of the NASL, but also of the Big Apple during those turbulent times. Just as the Cosmos were mostly a rag-tag team of semi-pros who had to keep their day jobs to survive, the city was having troubles of its own. The Son of Sam murders. The 1977 blackout. The infamous New York Daily News headline of Oct. 30, 1975, after the president declined to bail New York out of bankruptcy: "Ford to City: Drop Dead."

However, the bulk of the movie is devoted to soccer, and the filmmakers offer some remarkable footage of the Cosmos in their heyday. And not all the fancy footwork was on the field. Tampa Bay's Rodney Marsh gleefully recalls how the night before a match with the Cosmos he sent a limo loaded with hookers and several bottles of Chivas to meet Pelé and Chinaglia at the airport. Suffice it to say, Tampa Bay won the game the next day.

"Once in a Lifetime" is one of those sports films that transcends its particular sport. Jazzy and irreverent, with lively editing and a hip of-the-time soundtrack, it's a chronicle of an era as much as it is of a team and its untimely demise.