From soccer infamy to Xbox 'therapy,' what's real and what's not in 'Next Goal Wins'

After directing the underdog sports comedy “Next Goal Wins,” the line’s been forever blurred for Taika Waititi when it comes to the exploits of the American Samoa national soccer team.

His on-screen holy man, via introduction, says in the film (in theaters now) that the story of how the worst team in the world won its first international match “pretty much actually happened with a couple of embellishments along the way.” And now when he thinks about the true story, “I’m confused as to what I made up and what is actually real,” Waititi says with a laugh.

“I like this version better, where Jaiyah's the lead,” adds Jaiyah Saelua, a player on the American Samoa squad that beat Tonga in a historic 2011 World Cup qualifier, 2-1.

Waititi’s “Next Goal Wins” – also the title of a 2014 documentary about the team – follows coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) as he’s sent to American Samoa to turn around the fortunes of a team that endured global humiliation a decade earlier and now needs his guidance on the pitch four weeks before a tussle with Tonga. 

Here, Waititi and Saelua break down fact vs. fiction in “Next Goal Wins”:

Yes, American Samoa actually once lost a match 31-0

“Next Goal Wins” takes place a decade after American Samoa’s epic defeat at the hands of Australia in 2001 and the team’s an international laughingstock. When Rongen is brought on board, his goal isn’t even to win, it’s just to score one goal.

The historic loss – thanks in part to 19 members of the 20-man American Samoa squad being ruled ineligible to play by FIFA – did send the national team reeling for years. "But Thomas Rogan really changed the dynamic of the team. Not just with the skills and techniques that pertain to soccer, but also our mentality, the things we ate, the things we put in our bodies, all those disciplines that really make an athlete effective," says Saelua, 35, the first openly transgender player to compete in a World Cup qualifier.

Jaiyah Saelua formed a close bond with coach Thomas Rongen (eventually)

In the film, Fassbender’s on-screen coach initially has trouble with the island ways of life and getting his players motivated. He at first thinks Jaiyah (played by Kaimana) is the team masseuse and in one scene deadnames her by calling her “Johnny,” leading Jaiyah to body-slam her coach to the ground. Afterward, they apologize and figure out how to help each other.

Whenever the real-life team got a new coach, they’d often misname her, Saelua says. “They're just going off of what is on the roster (which) is my name at birth. There was no ill intent in them.” Saelua identities as fa’afafine, a third gender accepted by Pacific cultures. As far as her relationship with Rongen, “it’s evolved into something closer to what you see in Taika's movie” since the 2014 “Next Goal Wins” documentary. 

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The star goalie was not recruited at the local convenience store

Played by Uli Latukefu, Nicky Salapu was the goalkeeper of the brutal 31-0 drubbing and has quit soccer. Ten years later, Rongen and Jaiyuh track him down to a store where he’s delivering ice. He at first says no to returning to the team but eventually joins back up.

The real Salapu had moved to Seattle by that time, according to Waititi. But one intriguing true detail that was included: Salapu would play a FIFA video game on his Xbox “and leave one controller empty so that he could beat Australia, 32-nil,” the director says. “That was some sort of therapy for him.” (Another fun fact: Salapu was Saelua’s first soccer coach when she was in middle school.)

Saelua struggled balancing soccer and hormone treatments

In the movie, Jaiyah tells Rongen that she’s taking hormone replacement drugs in order to transition, but before the big match against Tonga, she goes off them to play better and it messes with her body and emotions.

At that time in 2011, Saelua says she was only four months into the treatment but it was in 2015 when she felt the effects that her movie counterpart faced. Living in Hawaii and also spending time on the mainland, “I was introduced to the pressures of having to look as passible as possible to live a comfortable life in Western societies.” Training for the 2015 World Cup qualifiers and the Pacific Games, Saelua realized she couldn’t play as well and got cut from the team. Telling herself “hormones are not going to get in the way ever again,” she decided to stop taking them in 2016 and “made sure that I was well enough to play again in 2019,” when she was named captain of the national squad.

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Taika Waititi's ‘Next Goal Wins’ brought back victorious memories

Saelua sat next to Waititi when he directed the soccer parts of the movie in Honolulu, and the scene where American Samoa players realize they won “took me back to 2011 and I got so emotional seeing it from an outside lens,” she says. Like what happens in the movie, “we didn't know how to react,” Saelua recalls. “People were dropping dead. I was jumping up and down. That was a very special moment that I would never forget.”

She still plays soccer but quit the team to do a promotional tour this year for “Next Goal Wins,” including the premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival with Waititi and Rongen. “I wasn't going to miss out on the opportunity to be here," says Saelua, who plans to play in next year’s World Cup qualifier. Quips Waititi: “Soccer's always gonna be there, but I won’t.”