Soccer fans get extra time with remake of ‘Victory’

And now there are two, Argentina vs. Germany for the World Cup, and what a World Cup it has been: loads of excitement, loads of drama, loads of goals (thanks Germany, Brazil back line), loads of saves by Tim Howard and his big goalie gloves.

And now comes the best news of all: Hollywood is planning to remake “(Escape to) Victory” the greatest movie ever made about soccer and Allies escaping under German barbed wire during World World II.

“Hollywood plans ‘Escape to Victory’ remake to capitalise on World Cup,” proclaimed the headline in The Guardian, a British national newspaper, and hence the reference to the movie by its original name — it was shortened to “Victory” on our side of the pond — and the spelling of capitalise with an “s” instead of a “z.”

“Victory” came out in 1981. It starred Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Max von Sydow ... and Pele, the greatest footballer/soccer player ever. And a lot of other great footballers: Sir Bobby Moore of England, Osvaldo Ardiles of Argentina, Kazimierz Deyna of Poland, Paul Van Himst of Belgium, Mike Summerbee of England, Hallvar Thoresen of Norway.

And Werner Roth of the United States, and the famous New York Cosmos.

Roth was the Cosmos captain. He ran around the pitch with the Soccer Bowl cup after the Cosmos won it with Pele and other slightly-over-the-hill world soccer stalwarts in 1977.

He played Baumann — no first name necessary, like Pele or Messi or Hulk — the captain of the German national soccer team in “Victory.”

I had a nice chat with Roth on Tuesday. A soccer pal had his cellphone number.

Roth said he, too, had read where “Victory” was going to be remade. Now 66, he would be available for a cameo in the new movie, he said.

Maybe he could be with the Allies this time.

Roth, who said Pele was responsible for his role in “Victory,” did not try out for the part of Baumann.

“It was actually John Huston’s adamant decision,” he said of the legendary screenwriter-director.

“By the time I had arrived in Budapest (where the climactic soccer match was filmed), he had not cast the Baumann role yet. He was getting concerned because he felt it was an important role — it didn’t turn out to be — but in any case he found out I spoke German.

“He said ‘You’re Baumann.’

“I said ‘But I don’t want to be Baumann.’

“He said I’m going to give you a scene — and then he put his fingers together, as directors tend to do — and he said, ‘It is going to be you, and it’s going to be Stallone.’

“He described the final penalty shootout scene, and he sold me on it.”

“Victory” was based on a 1962 Hungarian film and inspired by a real-life wartime soccer match pitting FC Dynamo Kiev vs. German soldiers during Ukraine’s occupation. I have “Victory” on DVD, and every four years, during the World Cup, I watch it again.

It’s part “The Longest Yard,” part “Rocky,” part “Hogan’s Heroes” — no wonder why guys who don’t even like soccer like this movie. Plus, it has “Soccer Plays Designed by Pele.” Which is what it says in the credits.

It has been 33 years since “Victory” was showing at a theater near you, and Roth’s shock of dark brown hair has turned into a shock of gray hair. But the movie holds up.

When Russell Osman, who in 1981 was a center back for a English football side called Ipswich Town, says instead of escaping through Paris sewers at halftime the Allied players should stay and play the second half “because we can win this!” I wanted to jump off the recliner and go in at right back.

“Victoire! Victoire! Victoire!” the crowd chants, and see if you don’t get goosebumps when it sings “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem, a cappella and rousing, with Sylvester Stallone staring down Werner Roth from The Spot — just like the Dutch ’keeper stared down the Costa Rican penalty takers at the World Cup in real life.

Roth said the climactic penalty kick had to be shot many times before they got it right.

“By that time, Stallone was so beaten up that he wasn’t diving as he had during casting. So I had to keep moving the ball closer and closer to him to make it easier” for him to save, Roth said.

Did he boot one that wasn’t so easy to save, just to remind Sly who was the real footballer, and who was the actor?

“One time. I put it to his opposite side. He laughed.”

Everybody had a laugh, Roth said, because this was 1981, and by that time Stallone had made only two “Rocky” movies. He wasn’t such a big shot then.

Roth said Stallone was easy to work with and seemed to enjoy playing soccer with some of its greatest players. And Michael Caine, who played Capt. John Colby of West Ham United in the movie?

Not so much.

Roth said Caine was more like the Italian defender who got bit by Luis Suarez.

“He came in a little overweight, and a little under-enthusiastic in regard to that role, I think,” Roth said. “I actually saw him a couple of years afterward, at the Plaza Hotel in New York, and I brought up ‘Victory.’

“He looked right through me, like he didn’t have a clue what I was talking about.”

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.