30 for 30: Soccer Stories (TV Series) White, Blue and White (2014) User Reviews

A very stupid war...and a couple of guys who are stuck in the middle.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 16 December 2014]

This episode of the terrific ESPN series "30 for 30" concerns a couple Argentine footballers who were stuck in the middle of the Falkland War crisis back in the early 1980s. The show begins with Argentina winning the World Cup in 1978. As a result, one of its big stars, Osvaldo Ardiles, is invited to come to the UK to play for one of its professional teams. Ardiles agreed and recommended that the team also take his teammate, Ricardo Villa. Both were welcomed and helped the team to win the championship that season. However, in the middle of their next season, war broke out and two Argentines were playing for their country's enemy! What happened next? See the film.

The best thing about this particular episode is its writing as well as its lovely anti-war message. Well worth seeing and a typically well done installment. You should note that I really DON'T like soccer/football, so the fact that I gave this one an 8 is a testimony to how well made it was.

Ossie Ardiles football hero and anti-war hero

[paul-allaer · 7/10 · 27 August 2021]

"White, Blue & White" (2014 release; 52 min.) is a documentary about Argentine football (a/k/a soccer) player Osvaldo Ardiles. As the documentary opens, we are at the 1978 World Cup , hosted by Argentina, then in the midst of a military dictatorship and its infamous campaign of "the disappeared". For Osvaldo Ardiles, then 25 yrs. Old, and his teammates, only 1 thing mattered: win the WC, period. They managed to do so, and shortly thereafter, Ardiles is approached by Tottenham, one of England's top football clubs. Ardiles agrees to join them, but insists that they also sign his good friend Ricardo Villa in a package deal. All is well, as Tottenham fans welcome Ossie and Ricky with open arms and European football glory waits in the wings. Then comes April 2, 1982, when Argentina invades the nearby British territory known as the Falkland Islands (Malvinas for Argentines). It is the beginning of a life-changing chain of events for Ardiles...

Couple of comments: I grew up in Belgium, and vividly remember Ardiles and Villa joining Tottenham, I mean, that was a BIG deal (the first soccer players from South America to join a British team). The 1982 Falklands war was as stupid as it was unnecessary: the Argentine military dictatorship did it to rouse up Argentine nationalism while it desperately hung on to power (only to be ousted just a year later). The British response was equally unneeded and out of proportion. But the war affected many personal lives, and Ossie Ardiles was just one of them. The documentary does a great laying out the tormented feelings of Ardiles who was put in an impossible position. "He was emotionally distraught", comments a British sports reporter. We see Ardiles and Villa visiting the Falkland Islands all those years later (in 2014), and then even more unexpected things happen... Just watch!

"White, Blue and White" originally aired in 2014 as part of the then-new ESPN series "30 For 30". I caught it the other day on demand from ESPN+. It was like a trip down memory lane for me (I moved to the US from Belgium in 1983). You don't have to be a soccer fan to appreciate the human aspects of this story (but it certainly doesn't hurt if you are). I'd readily suggest you check it out for yourself, and draw your own conclusion.