THE BECKER BUGLE

As the star of the Goal! trilogy, Mexican actor Kuno Becker certainly knows a thing or two about the beautiful game.

Becker worked alongside some of the greatest players in the world while filming Goal! The Dream Begins and is in no doubt as to who will be the first name to go on his Official Fantasy Game list. “David Beckham,” he says. “He is my first choice in the opening round, no question.”

In Goal!, Becker shows some fancy footwork of his own in the role of Santiago Munez – a talented young footballer from the barrios of east Los Angeles who dreams of turning professional. His big break finally arrives when he passes a trial with Newcastle United, 6,000 miles from home in the English Premiership.

During filming, he picked up tips and advice from some of the game’s leading lights. The experience clearly left a mark on Becker. “Kaka, Ronaldino and all the greats that I had the chance to work with are truly some of the best players in the world. It is hard to see past that as I was totally exposed to the best the game has to offer. The great thing now is that I can see who has it and who does not.... greatness, that is.”

Apart from acting and football, what really gets Becker’s pulse racing is music. He took up playing the violin when he was just six years old and later studied with maestros Denes Zsigmondi and Rugiero Ricci at the famous Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria proving that he certainly has more than one string to his bow!

Playing the Official Fantasy Game will be a first for Becker but he is upbeat about his chances of success. “I haven’t had the chance to play Fantasy before,” he says, “but I have no doubt that my side will dominate… after all, it is fantasy!”

As far as the real FIFA World Cup™ goes, the actor, who has a German father and Mexican mother, knows precisely where his loyalties will lie when the tournament kicks off in June. “The fact that Mexico qualified was a tremendous accomplishment but my feelings are the same as all true fans – now that we have made the finals, I want us to win. Que viva Mexico!”

Under the cover of night, a Mexican family illegally crosses the American border into California. No, this not another current events item on your local news show, but the beginning moments of Goal! The Dream Begins, the latest in the seemingly endless line of sports-themed movies from Walt Disney Pictures (opening in theaters today, under the Touchstone banner). But, unlike the mediocrity of this year’s other such offerings (Glory Road, Stick It), Goal! achieves its goal of being a cheer-inducing winner.

The immigrant Munez family moves to Los Angeles, where the embittered father (played by Tony Plana) becomes a groundskeeper and the eldest son, Santiago (Kuno Becker), holds down two jobs to save up enough money to fulfill his dreams. What those dreams exactly are he’s not quite clear on, but he knows it is not in his father’s footsteps.

A natural on the soccer field, Santiago catches a glimmer of what his life could become when his playing catches the eye of visiting Englishman Glen Foy (Stephen Dillane, star of last year’s best Disney sports film, The Greatest Game Ever Played, now on DVD). Glen is a former footballer himself, sidelined by an early career-ending injury, who sees in Santiago the raw talent and desire to succeed needed to become a professional football player - in England, that is. Glen promises Santiago to get him a try-out with the New Castle United Football Club - if he can make it to England.

After a conflict that creates an irreparable riff with his father, Santiago travels to the UK and, as the title states, his dream begins. Through several trials of culture clashing acclimation (such as learning to play in the mud) and drive-testing set backs (a health issue nearly sidelines him), Santiago makes it to the big leagues as a member of the New Castle reserve team. He befriends the starting team’s newest star player, Gavin Harris (Junebug’s Alessandro Nivola), a bad boy playa who gives Santi a taste of the downside of fame. But, with the support of team owner Erik Dornhelm (Layer Cake’s Marcel Iures), Coach Braithwaite (Billy Elliot’s dad, Gary Lewis) and potential love interest Roz (Anna Friel), Santiago manages to keep his head in the game, leading to victory and a (belated) reconciliation with his father.

(The film also features cameos by some of the hottest international football stars today, including Raul, Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham, as in Bend It Like Beckham.)

Goal! The Dream Begins opens with a sequence that is now more politically relevant than was likely intended. 10-year-old Santiago (Leonardo Guerra) and his family board a dingy looking van along with a group of individuals also hoping to live the American dream. They depart the van, run up a hill and through a hole in the fence, past screaming American Boarder Patrol. The story then skips ahead to present day where Santiago (Kuno Becker) is now a young man living in a poor section of Los Angeles. He works for his father as a day-laborer, spending his free time as the star player of a local soccer league.

Kuno Becker in Goal!

"GOAL! The Dream Begins," which opens Friday, is a classic sports underdog story in the vein of "Rocky," "Remember the Titans," "Seabiscuit," "Miracle" and "Glory Road."

But there's one big difference: The protagonist, soccer player Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker), is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who has lived in Los Angeles with his grandmother, father and younger brother for a decade.

Producer Mike Jefferies says the decision to make Santiago an undocumented immigrant was made to "touch on the political issue. I have lived in L.A. for many years and am aware that [the immigrant issue] has been brewing and bubbling for some time and would be contemporary at some point."

Making Santiago undocumented also served to up the ante for the character. Santiago, who works with his father as a landscaper as well as a restaurant busboy, dreams of becoming a professional soccer player. When he gets the opportunity to try out with one of England's top-ranked teams, Newcastle United, Santiago knows that he won't be able to return to Los Angeles. "It sets the stakes incredibly high for him to achieve what he achieves," said Jefferies, who moved from England to the United States in 2000.

Alessandro Nivola, who plays the bad-boy superstar of the team, said that "Goal" is a very American story. "It is a movie that fits a Hollywood mold: It's a classic underdog story, and that is sort of something American has defined itself by," he said.

"It's interesting," he added. "Some people are saying that that kind of story should no longer be an American story — that we should send all [the immigrants] home."

Nivola's grandparents were immigrants to America. "My grandparents were refugees" during World War II, he said. "My grandmother was a German Jew and my grandfather was an Italian sculptor. She had grown up in Milan and met him in an art school. During the war, they were spied on and escaped to Paris on fake passports, and with fake documents came to New York. They had something like $5. It was a classic immigrant story."

Becker, whose great aunt was the famed Mexican actress María Félix, also comes from an immigrant family.

"My grandfather was a German immigrant in Mexico in the 1940s," he said. "My other grandfather was a Spanish immigrant in Mexico after the civil war in Spain. My two grandmothers are Mexican. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here.

"So if somebody understands [immigrants], it's me."

Becker said he was pleased to see so many American flags during the recent demonstrations for immigrant rights. "They want to be part of this society," he said of those flag-wavers. "I really believe in adapting to a society, rather than adapting a society to you."

Unlike his movie character, the Mexican-born Becker spent his childhood in Germany and Austria and studied violin from the ages of 6 to 16. Still, he said, he related to Santiago.

"Everybody has dreams," the 28-year-old veteran of numerous Mexican telenovelas said. "Everybody wants to achieve something. Everybody in my family thought I was going to be a professional classical musician and then I decided to switch to acting. My family was like, 'Are you kidding?' I said, 'I want to change the instrument.' I wanted to achieve [by] working in these kinds of movies."

"Goal!' is the first in a trilogy of films dealing with Santiago and his quest for greatness on the soccer field. The second one, "Goal! 2: Living the Dream," is scheduled for release this fall; the third installment will begin production next month during the World Cup in Germany.

Jefferies said he and his business partner, Matt Barrelle, realized early on in Hollywood that soccer could be fertile film territory. It "is not only the world's biggest sport, it is the biggest form of content on television," he explained. "It seemed to us there was a landscape upon which a journey of a young man could unfold."

The production team met with officials of soccer's world governing body — FIFA, the Federation Internationale de Football Assn. — in Paris. "They basically gave us access to feature real teams in real competition with real players in return for what would be a wonderful series of three commercials for the game, particularly in emerging markets such as Asia and the USA," Jefferies said. (A portion of the profits from the trilogy will go to developing football facilities for kids in Third World countries.)

"Once we had that established, we sat down and talked to two of their sponsors, closing deals with Adidas and Coca-Cola," he said. Besides both companies co-branding their products with "Goal!" advertising, he continued, the film was able to use Adidas properties in the movie — "not least of which is [soccer superstar] David Beckham, who appears in all three movies. And the football team [in the movie] is the Adidas-sponsored Newcastle United."

The producers then raised the $100 million to make all three films. "We were editing [the first one] when Disney picked up the rights to distribute the movie worldwide, excluding a few territories," Jefferies said. There was synergy involved for Disney: It owns ABC, which holds the World Cup broadcasting rights in the United States.

"Goal!" opened in most foreign markets last fall. "We put back the release in the U.S.," Jefferies said. "The World Cup is around the corner and the USA … has a great chance of winning."

Mexican actor Kuno Becker goes global with the American dream

LOS ANGELES -- Amidst the immigration debate sparking demonstrations in America, comes the Disney film "Goal! The Dream Begins," about a young Mexican man who got past the border patrol to grow up in Los Angeles and become a pro soccer player in Europe.

Kuno Becker, who stars as aspiring footballer Santiago Munez, is a legal resident of the United States, but stands firmly on the side of the illegal immigrants who make their lives here. The actor, a Mexican telenovela star, is grateful to both his German and Spanish grandfathers, who left their homelands to make new lives in Mexico.

"I understand immigrants 100 percent. When I see these demonstrations, I see people who want to be part of a society," says the actor. "They want to adapt. I don't believe in trying to change society for you; I believe in you changing for society.

"And the story is about that: a kid with a big dream who wants to do something positive," adds Becker. "He doesn't want to do anything wrong; he's a good guy that works very hard every single day. It's funny because this movie is creating a little bit of controversy ... but it's an inspirational movie for everybody."

Although Becker played soccer casually growing up, he had to undergo rigorous, often painful training to look competent in front of the cameras.

"I broke both of my ankles," he says. "I had a stress fracture from too much straining. My body just said 'no.' Then somebody broke my nose in one of the scenes; it was an accident. Then I pulled every single muscle. It was the toughest thing I had ever done, but I really wanted the audience to believe I was a soccer player, otherwise they would be pulled out of the story."

The filmmakers received the full cooperation of FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association), which allowed them to shoot scenes during real Federation games and even feature cameos by players such as Real Madrid's David Beckham. Becker became such a familiar face at the games for Newcastle United -- Santiago's big break -- that the real-life crowds adopted his character as one of their own.

"We used to run into the field while shooting the film as they were about to play a game," Becker recalls. "It was funny because on the radio they were shocked. 'Who is this guy? The new guy from Newcastle? They never announce anything. What's happening here? Munez: What is that?' More and more they started to get used to us and at the end of the film, they were actually singing songs for Santiago."

Becker has already shot the second film in the "Goal!" soccer trilogy and hints that Santiago won't be the wide-eyed novice from the first film.

"I wanted to see the character evolve," says Becker. "I didn't want to play the same guy over and over, like three times. What we did in the second one is that Santiago is changing, becoming a lot more famous, kind of crazier."

"Goal!" takes its shot in theaters nationwide beginning Friday, May 12.

Kuno Becker Describes How He Got Involved in Goal! The Dream Begins: “Man, it was the most difficult thing in the world. Not only competitive, but also soccer-wise was really, really hard. I didn’t play a lot of soccer when I was a kid. I did play when I was in school but nothing professional. So I had to do a couple of auditions, like normal auditions, and then when I got the role…or at least half of the role. They said, ‘Okay, now can you play soccer?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, whatever. I can play soccer.’

I had to do this audition for two weeks in England with the real team, with the Newcastle United, the team of the film. I had to train with them for a couple weeks to do another audition, a soccer audition. I broke my ankles because I was training so hard, so many hours a day, that I had stress fracture. I couldn’t even walk, forget about playing soccer. So it was really, really, really hard.”

Becker almost lost the role because of his ankle injuries prior to shooting the film. “I almost didn’t get the role because of that, because the day of the audition, I couldn’t even walk, forget about playing soccer or anything else,” explained Becker. “I did learn a couple of things, like a couple tricks and stuff to keep the ball with me, and that’s where the director said, ‘Okay, you know what? You did improve,’ so I got the role. But it was really, really hard.”

Although Becker trained hard for the role, there are some scenes where a double had to be used. “I did everything in my power to be able to do as much as I could but there were certain things that even if you want to do it, you can’t do it,” said Becker. “There are certain things that these guys…they have been training for 25 years and they are 27, so it’s really, really hard to train for a couple months - four months - and achieve that level. It’s just impossible. So there were certain things that I really couldn’t do because even a lot of soccer players, they can’t do those things. Like the tricks, for example.

I did train a lot so I did as much as I could. I do things that I didn’t really know that I was going to be able to do, so that was a good thing. And the most important thing is that the audience really believes it and that the audience is not taken away by those scenes. It doesn’t take you away from the story when you see those scenes. That was my main concern. I really wanted to achieve a good level so the audience could really follow the story and just really believe that Santiago was a talented player.”

Getting Into Shape for Goal!: “I did have time to heal because that was like a month and a half before we started shooting. By the time we started shooting, I had started training but I was recovering myself. It was very, very hard. Then the actual training for the film, I did it, again, with a team and on the field. I had a football coach and I had a football teacher. I had to learn everything from, ‘This is how you go to try to score a goal...’ It was really, really bad. Physically, it was the toughest thing I’ve ever done.”

Hitting the Mark Take After Take: “It was very difficult, as you said, because it’s a whole different thing to actually play a match than to shoot a match for film. All the scenes, for example that trial you see in the first film under the rain and with mud and everything, we shot that sequence for about a week. And it was really, really hard. It was super cold. It was minus I don't know what and I couldn’t feel my legs anymore. Somebody broke my nose and it was cuts and cuts and it was constantly playing football, playing soccer for 10-12 hours. Stopping and not stopping, but it was really hard. So it’s actually harder than just playing a match.”

On Soccer Hooligans: Becker laughed when asked if he encountered any real soccer hooligans. “No, actually the Geordies were great with us. At the beginning, they were like, ‘Oh, man, this is not gonna happen. I mean, a guy that comes here and trains for four months is never going to be able to play football’ - as they call it instead of soccer.

I just trained hard and by the time we finished the film, the English fans were actually making up songs for my character, for Santiago. They were yelling, ‘Santiago is a Geordie,’ so it was really great. The people of the team, they were open to us. They were very warm with us. They were very helpful and supportive.”

Signing on to the Goal! Trilogy: “They told me from the beginning it was going to be a trilogy. I knew that so the challenge was to make my character evolve and change throughout the story instead of just playing the same guy three times. I think that’s very dangerous. It wouldn’t be interesting for the audience, too. The most important thing also is that this is a story and you have to remember that it’s about emotions, feelings, relationships and people have to relate to it. If it was just a bunch of guys playing soccer, it wasn’t going to be interesting.

What I think is interesting about this one is that this is a story of what happens inside of the soccer world, instead of just a bunch of guys playing soccer. And in the second one, I wanted to see him change. I wanted to see him evolve. I wanted to see him become a little bit crazy because that’s what happens with rock stars, soccer players, American football players. In any sport, it doesn’t matter - when a guy that comes from a very simple background gets all this money and fame and everything. I wanted to really see him change. So the challenge is still there for the third one, and I want to try to think about a couple more things to do with that.”

Becker admits signing up for three films is a big commitment. “It’s very big and it’s very challenging. I don't know about the third one. I know that it’s going to happen. The plan is to shoot the film during the World Cup in Germany and then the rest of the film, not all the film, but maybe 30% of the film during the World Cup. Then when the World Cup finishes in Germany, we’re supposed to be shooting the rest of the film there in the stadiums, with the real players, not with a real audience anymore but with a real everything. That’s the way we shot the first one and the second one. We shot it at the stadiums with the real players. It was just awesome and that’s going to give the sense of realism that we want to achieve.”

Becker’s Soccer Skills Progress from the First to Second Film: “In the second one it was actually not easier, but it was great that I did improve a lot because I kept training and I had a wonderful coach, Andy Ansah. He’s an English player and in the second one, I did a lot of things that I never in my life thought I was going to be able to do but it was just because of him. I had a great, great, great, great soccer coach. And in the third one, hopefully I’m gonna be able to do a couple more things.”

Goal! The Dream Begins opens in United States theaters next Friday, just in time to catch the buzz for the upcoming World Cup finals. No, this is not another Bend It Like Beckham chick flick, but a film which portrays the drama and excitement of the modern professional game. There have been a few decent soccer films over the years, but they all featured much different aspects of the game. Let's look at a few before we go further.

The 1981 film Victory was little more than a soccer version of The Great Escape, set during World War II, featuring Pele and Michael Caine as POWs who must assemble a team to play against the Germans in occupied France. The on-field action was almost believable until novice goalkeeper Sylvester Stallone stops a penalty kick from a top German player. That film did, however, capture some of the spirit of the game in one unforgettable scene; when the French crowd in the Paris stadium defiantly sang the "La Marseillaise," the French national anthem, much to the chagrin of their occupiers.

Fever Pitch, released in 1997, follows Arsenal supporter Paul (played by Colin Firth) who tries to strike a balance between his new family and his fellow Arsenal faithful, which up to that point had been his family. Most of the action here occurs off the pitch in the neighborhoods of London as the conflicted Paul sorts out his priorities. A humorous moment from this film is when Paul tells his girlfriend he cannot make any vacation plans until he knows the next season's schedule.

One remaining niche left to be covered was the modern professional soccer experience. Goal! fills this niche quite well.

It tells the tale of young player Santiago Muñez as he moves from Mexico to Los Angeles, and onward, to a trial with English club Newcastle United. A dominant player in Los Angeles' recreational leagues, the youngster is discovered by English scout Glenn Foy (Stephen Dillane), who arranges a trial with Newcastle United. As an underprivileged Mexican immigrant growing up in a poor section of Los Angeles, Santiago seemed destined to follow his father's path in life: laboring at menial jobs earning just enough to support his family. A naturally gifted athlete, his talent on the field was wasted in the L.A. recreation league where he can only dream of playing at the professional level. To chase his dream, Santiago is torn between soccer and his family commitments.

Somehow (I won't spoil it for you), Santiago makes it to England to see if he can play his way onto the squad. This is where the film starts to shine, complete with all of the characters you expect; the enigmatic, but thoughtful coach, aptly played by Marcel Lures (who reminds one of Arsene Wenger), the sleazy agent, the groupies, a likeable assistant coach, serious veteran players, the hot new signing with the playboy lifestyle, and of course a young player on trial for a place in the club -- Santiago Muñez

Santiago is played by Mexican TV and film star Kuno Becker. He is best known as the brooding rich son in the hit show "Soñadoras," a role that propelled him to teen heartthrob status to adoring fans across the U.S. and Latin America. While Becker had played some soccer previously, he underwent an intensive training regimen in order to convincingly play the on-field sequences.

A number of star players such as David Beckham, Raul, Zinedine Zidane, and Alan Shearer make cameo appearances, including one when Shearer unwittingly shows Santiago the difference between a veteran pro and a young trialist. One even sees United States men's Fulham defender Carlos Bocanegra in a shot or two.

What soccer purists might appreciate most is the work of football consultant and choreographer Andy Ansah. Ansah's experience combines 12 years of experience as a professional player in England where he played for teams such as Gillingham, Leyton Orient, and Brighton. More recently, he worked for six seasons in various production positions on the highly successful British soccer-based TV drama "Dream Team."

Perhaps the real star of the show is Saint James Park and its fans on game day. The eruption of the crowd when the Magpies score is simply electrifying. The excellent soundtrack featuring Happy Mondays, Unkle, the Bees, and Kasabian is pure northern England.

The character of Glenn Foy, the former player and sometime scout who helps Muñez get his chance, reminds us of the many soccer coaches and scouts who find and cultivate the new talent which is so important to the constant renewal of the game.

The idea for the film came in 2002, when producers Mike Jefferies and Matt Barrelle were at the World Cup in Japan. New to the movie industry, they spent a year researching what it would take to make such film. "It seemed like a no-brainer to us," Jefferies explained. "If we could make a film that resonated on a dramatic level about this kid's story, and create something really engaging that has appeal beyond a sporting audience, so that it can cross over demographics, territory, gender. . . we'd have something really exciting."

Barrelle explains: "We wanted to use real teams because the fans really know what's going on, and football fans are obviously the most fanatic fans in the world. You can't cheat them. We didn't want to do that, and hopefully you'll see that on the screen."

When it came to club choice, the filmmakers opted for Newcastle United, a team based in a one-club town where players are big stars. The Toon Army, as Newcastle United supporters are known, often include people from well outside the United Kingdom. Another appealing feature is that Newcastle is set in the often cloudy and chilly northern England, which provided a strong contrast with Santiago's balmy hometown, Los Angeles.

The club agreed to participate in the film after the producers won the trust of Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd. "They knew we understood that their core activity is playing professional football games. We had to be completely respectful of that and work around it," he said. The film crew did not film players during training on days before a match and the Magpies manager had to agree to every facet of the filming.

The photography is outstanding, which is no surprise, since the UK's Sky Sports channel shared its prime camera positions with the filmmakers during actual Premier League matches.

For the soccer scenes in California, the production team worked with players from Hollywood United Football Club. "The Hollywood United Football club is made up of a lot of English footballers who live in and around L.A. They all congregate and come together," Ansah said. The film's director, 36-year old Brit Danny Cannon, was named the club's most improved player last year. He is best known as a producer and writer for the hit television series "CSI."

It does, however, appear that the producers have a chance to keep improving the story since Goal! is just the first in a series of three films which follow Muñez throughout his career. Goal II: Living the Dream is already in post production and features Santiago transferring to play for Real Madrid alongside Ronaldo and under coach Rudi Van Der Merwe, played by Dutch actor Rutger Hauer. The final film, Goal III finishes the trilogy with Santiago appearing in the World Cup representing his country. Which country that will be remains to be seen. Portions of Goal III will be shot in Germany during this year's World CupFinals.

Despite a few flaws (which only soccer aficionados will notice), Goal! The Dream Begins sets a new benchmark for soccer films and is among the better sport films I've seen in some time. While the entire storyline feels predictable, the viewer probably won't mind since the passions and beauty of the game are so well portrayed. And with the World Cup at hand, it is a perfect time for both the soccer and non-soccer crowds to give it a look.