With all the talk of undocumented workers trying to capture a piece of the American Dream, it is nice to take a step back and see a story about how one young man achieves it.  Goal is reminiscent of a hundred other sports hero movies, but it is not without good sentiment and a nice storyline.

The movie about a young man living in Los Angeles who comes to America, like so many others, chasing a dream inspires its audience and reminds us that outside of politics, each one of these individuals has a soul worth valuing.

Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker) is a young man with considerable soccer skills.  His father (Tony Plana) has brought his family to America to start a business in landscaping. The initial conflict in the film comes when a former soccer scout (Stephen Dillane) for a professional team sees Santiago and is impressed by his raw skill.  The soccer scout offers Santiago a try-out with one of England’s professional teams. This enrages Santiago’s father as it destroys his ability to form his business and provide for his family.

Whether out of selfishness, or a higher duty to provide for the family he loves, Santiago ventures out to the foreign land of England and arrives in an environment entirely unfamiliar.  The remainder of the picture balances a love interest of Santiago with his attempt at gaining respect from other pampered players.

This is the first of three proposed films and towards the end of the film we see Santiago falling into a selfish pattern that likely sets up the second and third installment. Though sometimes predictable and standard fair, the film is still very enjoyable.  There are some crude remarks and some suggested sexual activity, so the film would most likely be best suited to those over the age of thirteen.  We give the film three out of five Bees.