In ways both good and bad, Onside, MLS and Apple TV’s brand new docuseries, feels a lot like the league itself. It is at times slick and polished, with moments of real brilliance. At other moments, what’s offered sometimes lacks intrigue and glamour, leading one to wonder — will this thing ever, truly be a success?
The series, produced by Box 2 Box Films, the same outfit that created the wildly successful Formula 1 docuseries Drive to Survive, is MLS’s latest attempt to introduce itself to a mainstream American audience. The league has tried and failed to do so at various times over its 30-year existence, but this moment — just two years out from a World Cup on home soil and with Lionel Messi plying his trade stateside — feels like an essential one.
It’s early yet, but MLS might’ve again missed the mark. Onside has its share of bright spots, but at the end of the day, it seems likely to do little to move the needle in terms of league relevance. It lacks, perhaps by design, any real starpower, with Messi and Miami’s traveling circus relegated, for once, to a mere sideshow.
Comparisons to Drive to Survive are inevitable, though maybe a bit unfair. Formula 1, with its massive investment and all of its glitz, glamour and high stakes, was already a global powerhouse when Netflix thrust it into American living rooms. MLS has a much taller mountain to climb, forced to compete with football offerings from across the globe.
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Onside is hardly the first soccer docuseries available to audiences stateside. Welcome to Wrexham, the story of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s purchase and journey with Welsh side Wrexham AFC, has become a bit of a cultural touchstone in the U.S. and Amazon’s All or Nothing series has given American consumers a glimpse into some global football’s biggest clubs.
Paul Martin, who co-founded Box to Box, helped spearhead the project, having already put his name on Drive to Survive and Full Swing, which documents life on golf’s PGA Tour. Soccer documentaries have become ubiquitous in the United States, but Martin and his team didn’t study any of them. MLS lacks the hollywood muscle of Wrexham or the starpower involved in All or Nothing, calling for a different approach.
“We always approach it in our own way, honestly,” says Martin. “I do live in a sports documentary space but I don’t tend to watch any of the others. I don’t think I’ve ever watched a frame of Welcome to Wrexham, and I watched maybe one episode of All or Nothing: Manchester City. We just honestly do our own thing. We approach everything from a story perspective. I’m a huge football fan, but I never get sidetracked by the football. I’m much more interested in finding stories underneath it.
“I think Onside,” he continued, “the breadth of the entire story — from Galaxy vs. Miami in the first episode, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cavan Sullivan’s story, the Atlanta story. I think there’s a real breadth of different types of stories within the series, which I’m really pleased about.”
Martin & Co. do succeed, at moments, in finding those unique storylines and characters. The series shines its brightest while following a pair of wildly different MLS personalities: LA Galaxy midfielder Riqui Puig and FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan.
Drive to Survive thrives largely because of the emergence of characters like Haas F1 team boss Guenther Steiner, whose expletive-laden rants and complicated personality at times carried the series. Noonan, an MLS lifer with a no-nonsense, down-to-earth affect, shares Steiner’s appreciation for the f-word, and his blunt manner makes him among the show’s standout characters.
FC Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan is a bright spot of MLS’s new Apple docuseries (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via AP Images)
The series’ second episode centers around MLS’s “Hell is Real” derby between Cincinnati and the Columbus Crew, and the contrast between Noonan and Wilfried Nancy — probably MLS’ most eloquent, well-spoken head coach, described in the series as a “soccer shaman” — is gold.
“When we go down the road of philosophy and culture, it’s a little bit cringe at times for me,” Noonan says in the documentary. “I think it’s just because you hear and see coaches that just want to sound really smart. The way people talk about ‘cultures, philosophies and game models.’ And you’re just like ‘I gotta rewind that. What does that mean? When did that term come about?’ Maybe it’s because I don’t have the vocabulary where I can use these crazy, made-up words to sound really smart.”
“F***ing score your goals, motherf***er!” Noonan is shown yelling moments later.
Puig, who has rapidly become a foundational player for the Galaxy, is eminently likeable as well, and the series offers unparalleled access to him as he navigates what ended up being the biggest storyline surrounding last year’s MLS Cup, his knee injury. He’s shown crying in the arms of Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney after tearing his ACL in the conference final, and the interviews with him in the days that follow that injury are truly heartrending.
Yet there are also many misses. There’s little to say about other episodes — installments that feature Sullivan, MLS’s youngest player ever, or the burgeoning rivalry between Sporting Kansas City and St. Louis City SC. Even with great access to several MLS boardrooms during the summer transfer window, the episode that focuses on deadline day lacks drama and intrigue.
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And then there’s the absolute, utter lack of Messi in the series, something that will likely come as a relief to MLS diehards who might be a little burned out on his coverage. But Onside, for the most part, isn’t geared to MLS diehards. It’s intended to broaden MLS’s appeal to global soccer fans and even introduce it to people who’d never identify as sports fans to begin with, as Drive to Survive did with F1.
Messi’s team was not keen on providing any one-on-one access with the superstar to producers of the series, multiple league sources told The Athletic, and they expressed concerns about access within the locker room and in other private moments. None of this came as a shock to Box to Box — Messi is notoriously hesitant to do media in general and when he does, he tends to collaborate with journalists he and his team have known for years, almost exclusively within Argentina.
“Apple had made two documentaries about Messi right prior to us kind of starting the show,” Martin said. “We didn’t want to tread old ground with Messi — he is a global superstar. Time with him was always going to be a challenge. You’re always weighing up, ‘Do we really want to spend the entire year chasing around Messi, where who knows what you’re going to get?’”
Messi was not the only player who wasn’t keen on participating in the documentary series. Throughout the season, sources across the league all painted the same picture: many players didn’t want to be featured, and teams had varying attitudes about participation. It’s an issue that persists. As Box to Box pitches Apple on a second season, it’s again encountering resistance from some key figures across the league.
Onside executive producer Paul Martin and MLS commissioner Don Garber at the screening of the Apple docuseries (Photo by Sergi Alexander/Getty Images)
“We’ve done enough of these shows to know that happens,” Martin said. “We do Drive to Survive and there’s some drivers that want to be much more front and center of it than other drivers. I don’t think we ever go into a world and think ‘just because the MLS are telling all the clubs that this is a really good idea, doesn’t mean that they’re just going to jump in with two feet.’ It becomes on us as producers to begin that process and get clubs kind of comfortable with it. You know there’s always going to be clubs that are less enthusiastic, players that are less enthusiastic, players who generally want nothing to do with it. That’s fine.”
Miami as a whole were decent partners, said Martin, and the series opens with a sitdown with David Beckham, a global superstar in his own right. Yet much of the content around Miami feels contrived, like the “insider” access to meetings between Miami owner Jorge Mas and then-president Raul Sanllehi. Drive to Survive has faced criticism from drivers and other participants for sometimes creating drama where there isn’t any; in Onside, there isn’t much to begin with.
Avid fans of MLS will still find the series, which does a good job highlighting some of the league’s oddities, interesting. It remains to be seen whether the casual viewer will find any interest in names like Tim Parker, Brad Guzan and Darlington Nagbe. For his part, Martin feels confident in the end product.
“In some ways it’s for Apple to figure (the demographics) out,” Martin said. “Whenever we do these shows, I don’t tend to think of it in those ways. I honestly approach these things in like, if we can make what we think is the best version of the show, and tell the stories that resonate with us and have a broader appeal rather than just very football-centric stories, then hopefully the audience and the demographics should take care of itself. I’m a believer that if you do that in an authentic way, that’s your best hope at getting whatever target demographic you want. People just respond to good characters and good stories and whatever else.”
We’ll soon find out whether MLS has done that, or whether Onside will be another failed attempt to thrust MLS further into mainstream relevance.
(Top photo: Sergi Alexander/Getty Images)
