One of the most high-profile stars of the historic 1994 World Cup soccer tournament in the U.S., Alexi Lalas, was just a few days from heading to South Africa for the debut of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa when he stopped by ESPN Zone Wednesday (May 19) to watch a media preview of the upcoming ESPN Films’ “30 for 30” documentary about a fateful match against Columbia during the first round of that World Cup in ’94.
(Story continues below following 3-minute video interview with Lalas and highlights from the event.)
Unbeknownst to Lalas and most others, as the team prepared for the match several players and the coach were hit with death threats from their countrymen over allegations involving Pablo Escobar.
Playing under stress and without a key player specifically targeted by the threats, Andres Escobar compounded the problem on the field when he made a shocking mistake during the game, accidentally deflecting a kick by U.S. midfielder John Harkes into his own goal.
A week later the soccer star Escobar was gunned down in a parking lot back in his home country.
Lalas was watching the movie for the first time. Immediately afterwards he told HollywoodInHiDef.com/3DHollywood.net that learning about the murder immediately cast a different perspective on the otherwise triumphant feeling by the U.S. team for their historic victory that propelled them to the second round. It was odd waking up feeling like somehow the U.S. played a small role in the murder of a global star soccer player, he said. But, as the film points out, there is reason for Alexi and his teammates not to feel any sense of responsibility.
In fact, the film by brothers Jeff and Michael Zimbalist provides an abundance of important details and context as it expertly interweaves the stories of these two men and their home country that most of us remember from the 1980s as nothing more than the drug and murder capital of the world.
HiDef images certainly heightens the impact but it is the exhaustive number of new interviews blended with a remarkable amount of archival audio and film and news footage, including some with Pablo playing soccer with the team while in prison, amongst other personal movies of the drug kingpin, that creates the biggest and most lasting impression.
“The Two Escobars” is one of the strongest entries in the “30 for 30” series that has already set the bar high with programs such as Mike Tollin’s look at the first pro football network covered by ESPN, “Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?”
Lalas, who later became general manager of the Los Angeles Galaxy, joined ESPN in 2009 and will be the network’s studio analyst for the entire 64-match World Cup schedule being televised live in HiDef by ESPN from June 11 – July 11.
“The Two Escobars” is one of two terrific new World Cup movies that will inspire great interest in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and the other movie even features a World Cup based in South Africa, but it’s not soccer/futbol but about the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Click here to read my review of the new Blu-ray release of Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus,” the inspirational docu-drama of the team that helped Nelson Mandela restore pride to South Africa.
— By Scott Hettrick