Under Review

?Inside North Korea
?Jack Hits the Road

?It became known over the years as the Miracle on Grass. On July 19, 1966, in arguably the greatest upset in World Cup history, North Korea beat Italy 1-0 in Middlesbrough, England, to become the first Asian team to advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament. The plucky squad—whose players stood 5'5" on average—lost to Portugal in the next round and returned home to a hero's welcome. But as North Korea continued to isolate itself, the memory of the individual players began to fade. It is now being restored. In the fall of 2001, after nearly four years of negotiating with the Pyongyang government, British filmmakers Dan Gordon and Nicholas Bonner were allowed inside North Korea to talk with the seven surviving members of the '66 team. The result is a mesmerizing 80-minute documentary, The Game of Their Lives, which includes World Cup footage and scenes of the team's practices at which the locals got to know the players and began rooting for them. The film also shines a rare light into today's North Korea, showing the bustle of subways and the intensity of soccer in city parks; a border guard says, "When I play football, I am the goalkeeper...like the army guards the security of the country." Hailed by London's Sunday Times as "a gem," the film (which has been aired several times to great response in both North and South Korea) is being shopped by Gordon and Bonner for a broadcast or theatrical outlet in the U.S.

?Jack Edwards, heavily criticized for his jingoistic calls after the U.S.'s World Cup wins over Portugal ("Mine eyes have seen the glory!") and Mexico ("The land of the free, the home of the brave is into the round of eight!"), has been replaced as ESPN and ABC's top soccer announcer. Rob Stone and JP Dellacamera take over.