Goles en Contra

Good people are 100% good and bad people 100% bad. No grey tones. It's supposed to be based on real events, but the characters are simple, boring, and one dimensional. In other words, they are not real. The writers could not figure out what they were doing. Is this a documentary, a "Patron del Mal" type of series, or something else. Whatever the case, writing is lazy. The series comes across more as an attempt to clear the names of some players and coaches. I'm afraid the real story is not as clear cut. No mention of key themes to understand what happened to the team: 1- "Barrabas" Gomez, the player that had to sit because of the threat, is in real life the assistant coach's brother! No discussion about that conflict of interest. Most people in Colombia thought that he didn't deserve to be in the national team. 2- Four years earlier, the striker that score the goals that helped Colombia classify to the 1990 World Cup stayed at home- he wasn't called for the World Cup team. Colombia's Achilles tendon in the 1990 World Cup was the attack. So there you have two examples of conflicting situations between managers and players that had a meaningful impact in the World Cup. Was Higuita 100% pure and his visit to Pablo Escobar in jail a humanitarian effort? I don't know and certainly wish that was the case. But the series failed to develop the story. It was just an event, almost disconnected emotionally from the rest of the action. The edition is poor, the sequence of events impossible to understand if you're not Colombian, and the concept a disservice to viewers and football fans. Wasted money.

First I want to comment about the 2/10 review about this being difficult for international audience. I'm not sure what planet that reviewer is on but I find it disgraceful that he thinks the viewer is uneducated and unable to determine the different between footage, film scenes and historical context.

What's there go not understand. Soccer teams owned by cartels in Cali and Medellín. Club president's getting gunned down and one coach, one president decide it's time to get a team going with only "Colombians" that represents the people and the country.

Saw Escobar own goal. Tragic for a good man and team.

A very strong series! The reality of that time and what it cost to make a mistake, is one of the strongest cases in football, I'm not saying this because I'm from Colombia 🇨🇴 or a fan of the green!! But to see how a player gave it all, I even think he played 80% of his games without being able to play! But his passion was over the limits!! Really such a good series! Some of the players were imitated perfectly!!

Really, if you're from another country, you won't regret it. The story is very strong, I'm sure my score is very high, but what I felt was very, very strong. I really recommend it to you!!!!

This is a Colombian Telenovela where the scenes seem to be just stuck together in some random fashion, challenging viewers to make sense of the story. It mixes original footage of events at that time in history, with the film itself. Unfortunately, there is little in the way of the necessary context required for viewers to understand the background and what really led to the events that are portrayed in the series. More likely, this series was intended for local viewers and not a global audience, as it is completely impossible for viewers from another country to follow the story and understand the context that led up to the final event. It's just a very poorly executed series.