'The Game of Their Lives' opens Friday in L.A., Washington and Indianapolis. IFC Films

Two years ago my jaw hit the floor when I heard the writer-director team that did Hoosiers and Rudy was making a $27 million film on the U.S. soccer team's epic 1-0 victory over England in the 1950 World Cup. Here was one of the greatest upsets in sports history, a ragtag bunch of Yanks taking down the World Cup favorite, and now a proven director (David Anspaugh) and writer (Angelo Pizzo) were going to spin the tale for the masses.

For those of us enchanted by the 1950 team -- I proudly wear an old Toffs 1950 U.S. replica jersey on weekends -- the opportunity was tantalizing: Would we finally get a Hoosiers for U.S. soccer fans?

The Game of Their Lives opens in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Indianapolis on Friday, and while the film is certainly worth seeing -- especially if you're curious about the history of American soccer or a youth coach taking your team on a motivational field trip -- it never quite manages to hit the high notes that made Hoosiers a giant in the sports-movie pantheon. Few films do, of course, and yet some telling missteps (despite the richness of the material) make GOTL seem like a squandered opportunity for greatness.

The filmmakers do get a lot of things right. As anyone who's seen Leonardo DiCaprio flail around in The Basketball Diaries knows, laughable game action is the kiss of death for a sports movie, and I'm happy to say GOTL's soccer scenes are spot-on, even more realistic than those in 1981's Victory (which merely had Pelé and Argentinian legend Ossie Ardiles in the cast). That's no small feat, and it's a credit to U.S. Hall of Famer Eric Wynalda, who served as a consultant to the movie, and a cast that includes several former players, including ex-MLS stars John Harkes (elected to the Hall of Fame this week), Nelson Vargas and Nino DaSilva.

Likewise, GOTL captures the period perfectly, reproducing the 1950s-era game down to the smallest details, from the heavy cotton uniforms to the lace-up soccer balls to the maddeningly uncomfortable cleats the players wore. It helps that Anspaugh shot on location in the Hill section of St. Louis (home to several U.S. team members) and in Brazil, the site of the 1950 World Cup. There's no faking the Hill's city parks, Rio de Janeiro's distinctive sidewalk tile patterns or the majesty of the Copacabana Palace hotel, and the extra money spent to avoid filming in Toronto and Puerto Rico was well worth it.

Best of all, GOTL is the most high-profile monument yet to the 1950 U.S. team, a motley crew of amateur and semipro players led by midfielder Walter Bahr (Wes Bentley) and goalkeeper Frank Borghi (Gerard Butler) that somehow toppled the full-time professionals from the country that invented the game. How big an upset was it? Keep in mind that despite being regarded as the finest team on the planet, England only deigned to compete in its first World Cup in 1950, finally legitimizing the event as a true global championship. One bookmaker set the odds on a U.S. victory over England at 500 to 1.