For the past several weeks, the World Cup has delivered the kind of drama Hollywood spends years trying to create: unlikely heroes, unexpected turns, and millions of people holding their breath at the same time.

Later today, Spain and Argentina will meet for the title, closing a tournament that brought the world’s game closer to home.

Maybe that’s why soccer keeps finding its way onto our screens long after the matches end. From Bend It Like Beckham to Ted Lasso, the entertainment industry has learned that the game offers more than just wins and losses. It comes with characters, communities, and the chance to prove you belong.

This week, we’re looking at how soccer turns a game into something everyone can feel.

A former Shaolin monk reunites with his old brothers and brings their martial arts skills to the soccer field, where every pass, kick, and header becomes gloriously over-the-top. Stephen Chow’s action comedy is ridiculous in all the right ways, but beneath the chaos is a familiar story about overlooked people finding their place on a team. It also found a global audience, earning nearly $43 million worldwide.

WHERE TO WATCH →

Santiago Muñez is working in Los Angeles when a scout spots his talent and offers him a trial with England’s Newcastle United. The opportunity feels like a dream, but earning a place on the team asks more of him than talent alone. The movie is a sincere underdog story about sacrifice, family, faith, and the discipline it takes to keep going when the next step is anything but guaranteed.

WHERE TO WATCH →

Long before Ted Lasso, American entertainment was already trying to unlock soccer.

In the 1970s, the New York Cosmos brought Pelé to the United States and surrounded the team with international stars, celebrity attention, and the energy of New York nightlife. As the documentary Once in a Lifetime recounts, the Cosmos briefly made soccer feel like America’s next major attraction. But the hype eventually faded, and a larger question remained: how do you help American audiences see themselves in the world’s game?

Since then, Hollywood has never stopped looking for an answer.

Over the years, movies and television kept returning to soccer from different angles. Bend It Like Beckham placed the game inside a story about family, culture, and finding your own path. Kicking & Screaming used it as the backdrop for a comedy about fathers, sons, and youth-sports obsession. More recently, Welcome to Wrexham gave viewers an entire club and town to follow across multiple seasons.

The best of these stories understands that the match is only part of the appeal. What makes us care is who has something at stake, whether it’s a player proving she belongs or a community sharing every win and loss.

That may be why soccer works especially well when audiences have time to live inside its world. The formations matter less than the relationships around them. A season can hold setbacks, second chances, and unforeseen victories that feel earned because we have seen what it took to reach them.

For years, Hollywood helped audiences get closer to the people behind the game. Now, that distance is shrinking. Players, commentators, and supporters are sharing moments that once would have required a documentary or a scripted series to uncover. And this World Cup has made the shift especially visible as stories travel beyond the broadcast and take on lives of their own online.

Hollywood isn’t being pushed aside, though. It just now has a richer world to draw from, with audiences already invested before anyone writes the first scene.

Soccer has always offered more than a final score. We’re simply finding more ways to experience the story together.

The results are in! 60% of you voted for A story people believe in in last week’s poll: What gives an indie film the best chance to break through?

This week’s Funding Watch highlights South Shore Soccer Club, a venture exploring whether supporters will help fund two grassroots teams on opposite sides of the pond.

The plan connects South Shore FC in Blackpool, England, with the Metropolis Metros in Illinois. Its pitch combines community ownership with traditional club revenue, livestreaming, and other digital content. The campaign is currently testing interest through Wefunder rather than accepting completed investments.

What makes South Shore worth following is the idea underneath it.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney showed with Welcome to Wrexham that audiences can become deeply invested in a club, its town, and the people behind it. South Shore is testing whether that connection can extend beyond viewership to ownership.

_{*Plumb News is not affiliated with South Shore Soccer Club or Wefunder and does not receive compensation for featuring it. We’re just highlighting it because we believe projects like this deserve support.}

“If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” – 1 Corinthians 12:26 (ESV)

A great team is never just a collection of talented individuals. Each person affects the whole, and every victory belongs to more than the player who scores.

Paul was writing about the church, but the picture is easy to recognize in sports. One person’s pain is carried by others. One person’s breakthrough becomes a reason for everyone to celebrate.

That kind of shared investment is part of what makes soccer so powerful.

For a little while, people from different places and backgrounds feel the same tension, disappointment, and joy. The match may end, but something of that shared experience stays with us: we were never meant to carry everything alone.

Until next time,

THE PLUMB NEWS TEAM