‘Copa 71’ Review: Soccer Doc Sheds Light on a Women’s World Cup That Took Place Two Decades Before Many Realize

Stephen Saito For nearly half a century, being right felt wrong to Carol Wilson. A member of the British soccer squad that participated in the Women’s World Cup in Mexico in 1971, Wilson uses the doc “Copa 71” to describe how she “remembered thinking I’m never going to see anything like this again.” In James Erskine and Rachel Ramsay’s brisk and rousing history of the tournament, few can say that they’ve even seen it when footage of the event was buried in archives for years, all but erased from collective memory.

Why? The doc suggests the reasons were rooted in both misogyny and economics, seeing as how the Federation Int’l Football Association disapproved of the games as a rare major soccer event they had no control over — at least, not until starting their own women’s tournament in 1991. What’s more fascinating than why the event isn’t more well-known by the public is why the women that played in it have rarely spoken about it.

Instead, after returning to their home countries, they were made to feel shame about their participation by those who hadn’t witnessed the games themselves and mocked them for playing a predominantly male sport. With a relentless pace and plenty of kick, “Copa 71” makes it easy to get swept up in the excitement they felt when they made it to Mexico, where they saw international teams comprised entirely of women like themselves for the first time.

As subjects share vivid memories of taking the field, their stories appear to stir back up the attitudes that made them great competitors. For every memory, there is an image, thanks to how the tournament came about: With a massive promotional machine already in place from the previous year, organizers in Mexico believed a women’s World Cup could keep