In partnership with Colorado Springs Switchbacks, Independent Film Society of Colorado and Kicking + Screening Soccer Film Festival, we are proud to present the USL Summer Showcase Soccer Film Festival!

"BIG-TIME SOCCER: THE REMARKABLE RISE & FALL OF THE NASL" (2021, 1h 31m)

Nearly 40 years since its demise, the North American Soccer League continues to linger in the memories and imaginations of soccer fans across the United States — and beyond.

The colorful, oftentimes controversial league attracted some of the game’s greatest players: Pele, Best, Cruyff, Muller, Beckenbauer, to name a few.

Crowds of 70,000-plus flocked to games as the NASL brought star power to a country where soccer had been virtually invisible just a few years earlier. It was as if a huge soccer circus had arrived to entertain America. But it couldn’t last. For many fascinating reasons, the NASL did not survive.