Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco’s documentary The Match couldn’t feel more timely. Following its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the absorbing and detailed account of the now-legendary match between Argentina and England at the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals screens as the opening night film at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival at the same time the 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament (an event that only comes around every four years) is holding seemingly every person on the planet in rapt attention. But even if this reflection on past history wasn’t running parallel with history currently being made, it would still be worth your attention.
You see, there’s quite a lot that’s rather remarkable about The Match, both in its adventurous approach to tackling the documentary form, and in how that approach is accessible to both football die-hards and novices alike. Interviews with some of those involved in that match— shot in stark black-and-white— include members from both teams, like England’s Peter Shilton (the goalkeeper who ended up replacing the team’s injured captain in the match) and Gary Lineker, and Argentina’s Jorge Burruchaga. Their inclusion contributes the requisite personal touch as they jointly and individually revisit memories that both conjure fondness and revive old grudges, but The Match impressively pulls back from its titular subject, using it as a jumping off point to leap across time— 221 years, in fact— and examine the colonialism and political strife that informed the two countries’ relationship through the decades. This particularly reached a breaking point four years before the match, when the Falklands War erupted over control of a small territory ruled by Britain, but claimed by Argentina; the bloody event strained relations even further.
The Match doesn’t exactly delve deep into historical details (there simply isn’t the time), but it does convey them in a straightforward and playful, rather than academic, manner. Stylish title cards introduce each segment, and the documentary often takes clever turns in its storytelling. For instance, just before the match begins, the narrator breaks down the participants in a photo of the pre-game handshake between Shilton and Diego Maradona, the legendarily talented Argentinian team captain, pointing out who is who and why we should pay attention to them for later. The later, as most football fans already know, includes two of the most famous goals in the history of the sport: “the hand of God,” in which Maradona made a goal by palming the ball (the referee’s refusal to call a foul resulted in global controversy), and his later dribble that was dubbed “the goal of the century.” The action moves at a fast clip that makes the game’s climax thrilling even for viewers who already know the outcome: Argentina won that match against England, and went on to win that year’s World Cup, a feat they would not repeat until 2022. And while the soaring score and final bits of footage uniting the interview participants leans too hard into sentiment, undercutting what could have been a sharper critique of the politics that, as the film states, united the two teams by a ball but divided them by a flag (the film itself takes a rather frustratingly neutral stance as it looks at both sides of the conflict), it’s difficult not to walk away feeling at least a little enthralled.
The Match screened in the Horizons section of the 2026 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Runtime: 92 minutes.
Katie at the Movies 