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Not really a spoiler: Under Pressure: The U.S. Women’s World Cup Team (now streaming on Netflix) does not have a happy ending. This four-part documentary series chronicles the U.S. women’s national team’s showing at the 2023 tournament, where they followed up two consecutive Cup victories with a terribly disappointing early exit. So, yes, another soccer doc on Netflix, and, considering the results, one that seems likely to deliver some drama.
Opening Shot: An establishing shot of seagulls circling the lights of a soccer stadium. Title card: MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA.
The Gist: “It’s win or go home time in the Women’s World Cup.” “We’re not playing to our strengths.” Nothing’s rainbows and butterflies.” A variety of voices preview what’s to come in this series: The U.S. women’s national soccer team hoped to do the impossible and win a third straight World Cup – but they failed miserably, delivering the USWNT’s worst showing in the tournament ever. “The big risk is, they become irrelevant,” goes another voice. As that one guy said, WHA HAPPEN’D? The next three-ish hours will get into it, and it’s probably not going to be pretty.
We open during a more hopeful time, catching up with the USWNT seven months prior to the World Cup, at the first of several training camps that’ll help recently hired head coach Vlatko Andonovski whittle the roster down to 23 players. The new coach will oversee some roster turnover from the previous Cup-winning group, so he’s <insert title of series here, the part that comes before the colon anyway> to maintain that success. The whole world is watching. The USWNT is a likely favorite in the tournament, and there’s no lack of confidence at this point, months before it begins.
We meet one of the shoo-ins to make the team, Alex Morgan, the captain, two-time Cup winner and face of the squad. This’ll be her first Cup as a mother, and we watch her interact with her daughter Charlie while making a personal appearance at a newly opened soccer store in San Diego (there’s a funny moment where Charlie picks up a shoe and Alex has to redirect her to the proper brand, since toddlers don’t yet understand the concept of sponsorships). We meet Megan Rapinoe, a wily veteran who’s been banged up recently but can still play an important role on the team.
Next, a less familiar face: Kristie Mewis, a “bubble player” on the cusp of making the team; she hangs out with her long-distance partner and fellow footballer, Australia’s Sam Kerr, as they visit Kristie’s fellow soccer player sister, Sam Mewis, a former USWNT member and World Cup participant. We also meet Alyssa Thompson, also on the bubble, an 18-year-old who skipped the college circuit to go pro before she was even finished with high school; we hang out at her graduation party, where her friends celebrate her success and lament how they don’t get to see her nearly enough. With four weeks to go before the tournament, these team potentials wait nervously for a call from Andonovski to see if they go to Melbourne to play on a humongous international stage – or stay home.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Under Pressure is yin to the yang of HBO’s Angel City – about the formation of Los Angeles’ Angel City FC of the National Women’s Soccer League – the former profiling a team with a weighty legacy to uphold, the latter zeroing in on an upstart franchise hoping to rise to prominence. (And they share a couple of the same talking-head commentators.)
Our Take: The opening episode of Under Pressure boasts a countdown structure, first to a Hard Knocks-like will-they-or-won’t-they-make-the-team moment (note, it ends with a sort-of cliffhanger, although true soccer aficionados already know the results), and to the World Cup itself. It features plenty of talking heads – coaches, players, journalists and other expert commentators – alongside footage from camp sessions and more relatively candid-slash-slightly-contrived bits aiming to flesh out players’ “character” off the field. In other words, there’s no gimmickry or innovation from the usual sports-doc/reality-show format, although you might have an argument that most series don’t typically document such high-profile failures (that 30 for 30 about the Buffalo Bills’ four bewildering Super Bowl pratfalls is another notable exception).
Having watched the opening episode, it boasts an air of inevitable dread, and director Rebecca Gitlitz leans heavier into the personal drama of cut day than any optimism for the Cup. We see the players praising Andonovski’s ability to progress with the ever-evolving game, a bit of irony considering the eventual result (and his post-Cup resignation). Gitlitz likley set out to capture history – a triumphant Cup threepeat – and ended up documenting a disheartening collapse, which might be more dramatically compelling than yet another hooray-we-won narrative. Part of the drama might encompass just how much access she was able to attain as the team fell apart; there aren’t many flies on walls of losing locker rooms. One of the goals of series like this is to work around the canned sportspeak so many athletes spew to the press – was Gitlitz able to capture those unfettered emotions? That alone may inspire fascination from viewers who are curious to know how a team of such high standing could so significantly underperform.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Kristie Mewis sighs deeply as she waits for Andonovski’s call.
Sleeper Star: The players on the bubble are always the ones that inspire us the most, so Kristie Mewis is immediately the most relatable person in Under Pressure. You can’t help but root for her success.
Most Pilot-y Line: A player in a team huddle invokes the title of the series: “Pressure is a f—ing privilege on this team!”
Our Call: STREAM IT. I’m not sure U.S. soccer fans want to relive that Cup – but many will be curious to understand the team’s failure better, and for those viewers, Under Pressure should be fascinating.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
