Both Antonio AND Jason got to see SUMMER OF 94, part of the Documentary Spotlight at the 2026 edition of South By Southwest, and we have a lot to say! If you are into sports docs of any kind, this is one of the big highlights of the fest this year.
About: “Summer of ’94” reveals the wild rise of the U.S. Men’s National Team on the road to the 1994 World Cup—and the history they were never meant to make. With no league and no roadmap, a ragtag group of players and an unlikely coach endured a grueling two-year training camp, hoping simply not to embarrass their nation at the first-ever World Cup on American soil. Armed with camcorders, the players documented it all, capturing raw moments as underdogs grew into future legends. Featuring never-before-seen footage and new interviews with Alexi Lalas, Cobi Jones, Tony Meola, and coach Bora Milutinović, the film shares how chaos, chemistry, and grit forged a brotherhood that changed US soccer forever.
Antonio’s Reaction: A time capsule of a time when the US Soccer was struggling and they had to host the world cup at home. At the same time we didn’t have a professional domestic soccer league, no soccer national team structure and we haven’t been to the world cup in 50 years. The USA national team was the ultimate underdog. All it took was an oddball Serbian coach to make this team go beyond heir limits. Summer of ’94 also captures for me a more pleasant time when we didn’t have to worry about international conflicts and the biggest stories that we were talking about was OJ’s white bronco chase. From all the stories in this documentary, the USA made it out of the group stage in the ’94 World Cup . It has an amazing cast of characters for the USA 94 team, specially the defender Alexi Lalas who is the star of the documentary. I am happy that we finally get to see the full story of the Group stage game between Colombia vs USA. It had been previously shown in the documentary the two Escobars; because the own goal from Defender Escobar is responsible for him losing his life days after. The previous documentary made it look like that goal won the game. When the USA played that game perfectly and won 2-1. The result which gave the USA its first qualification to the knockout round in 54 years. I love this team, even though I still don’t like the horrible denim home kit. Summer of 94 is a great watch before the upcoming world cup to see how far we have progressed in world football.
Jason’s Reaction: When I think of the summer of 1994, memories of seeing SPEED, TRUE LIES and FORREST GUMP in the cinema immediately come to mind. I was not much of a sports fan back then, but man would I have loved to see a documentary like this on the big screen right after the event!
Following several very positive and uplifting subjects, I quite loved how filmmakers Dave LaMattina & Chad Walker take us back in time featuring a good mix of 1994 footage and its Men’s National athletes who reflect well on this time where they pretty much start from nothing. As I have no background or knowledge, there were truly times here that I was on the edge of my seat. For people who followed this World Cup story, this will be a treasure trove for its fans.
This Fox Sports documentary is lively, fun and has a great energy throughout featuring a lot of different interviews. I will admit that sports docs are not my forte, but this movie grabbed me almost instantly with its throwback title cards as well as just loving its overall presentation, which hits you fast and furious as well as being cinematic. I feel like this would play well in a sports film festival or as an event screening in sports towns, but if you also just want a good sports doc to keep you hooked, find this one when it comes your way. I know it is having a Fox debut in May but this movie will also rock on the big screen!
