A-hyuk! Who's ready to play?
Sport Goofy in Soccermania is an animated short by Disney starring Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Goofy. It is often viewed as a pilot to the original DuckTales.
After Scrooge accidentally gives the boys a trophy worth millions of dollars, he has to sponsor their team if he wants any hope of getting it back.
While at a sports store, they meet Goofy, whom Scrooge notices to have skills in soccer and recruits him as a coach.
Tropes:
- Badass in Distress: Goofy gets captured by the Beagle Boys in an effort to ensure an easy victory against the Greenbacks. For the most part, he doesn't put up much of a fight. However, once Goofy realizes that the Beagle Boys are cheating and proud of it, he manages to break free and return to the game all while giving his captors the slip.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Upon winning back the trophy, Scrooge declares that it will be locked up in a place where it will be safe and secure forever... then he hands it to the curator as a donation to the Duckburg Museum.
- Big Damn Heroes: After a losing start against the Beagle Boys thanks to their cheating, Goofy breaks free from captivity to turn the game around.
- Boom in the Hand: The Beagle Boys' final attempt to win the game is to rig a soccer ball to blow Goofy up. However, the Beagle Boy in charge of detonating the bomb pushes the wrong button, prompting the leader to take the remote and detonate the bomb while it is in their hands.
- The Cameo: An early version of Roger Rabbit is seen in the crowd shots.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Double Subverted. While the Beagle Boys do manage to make it to the finals by cheating and come close to beating Scrooge's team, when Goofy returns to save the day, not only do they lose, but they are arrested as well.
- Comically Missing the Point: Upon finding out their final opponents would be the Beagle Boys, Scrooge informs Goofy about how they would cheat to win. Goofy simply shrugs it off and says that is against the rules, failing to realize what Scrooge was saying.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: At first glance, Goofy seems to be a bit silly, yet he manages to take a group of underdogs and lead them to victory. Not only that, but when he is captured, he manages to escape on his own.
- Defeating the Cheating Opponent: With the help of Goofy, Scrooge's team is able to beat the rule-breaking Beagle Boys.
- Easily-Distracted Referee: The ref for the soccer game between Scrooge's team and the Beagle Boys has trouble seeing to the point that he calls goal for the Beagle Boys' blatant cheating. It take the Beagle Boys beating up Goofy for Scrooge to give the ref some glasses, allowing him to call a penalty.
- Failed a Spot Check: When the Beagle Boys break into Goofy's house to kidnap him, Goofy casually walks by them not giving a bat's eye. It's when he goes to bed that he lets out a "Hey! Wait a minute!" However, it turns out that he said that because he forgot to turn off the lights, allowing the Beagle Boys to knock him out easily.
- Five-Aces Cheater: The Beagle Boys discuss their plan to beat Scrooge's soccer team while playing cards. Throughout the scene, an ace of spades keeps getting passed around, as each Beagle Boy keeps stealing it from the other. In the end, they all deal their hands and all the cards are the ace of spades.
- Literal Metaphor: When Scrooge learns that the trophy he gave his nephews is worth millions, he leaves an Impact Silhouette in his ceiling: he was so shocked he "hit the ceiling".
- Mistaken for Thief: When the boys come to ask Scrooge for help, Scrooge immediately thinks they are thieves who came for his money and pulls a cannon out onto them. They have to let him know it's only them for him to lower his guard.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The whole plot happened thanks to Scrooge giving a trophy he thought was worthless all so he didn't have to spend $1.49 on a trophy. Of course, when said trophy turns out to be worth millions, not only does Scrooge have to sponsor the team to get it back, but the trophy attracts the Beagle Boys.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The nephews inform Scrooge that all of their teammates were the last ones picked, showing how much they need to be trained before they are ready.
- Spinning Paper: Used for a Time Skip showing the McDuck Greenbacks and the Beagle Boys' progression through the soccer tournament.
- Stating the Simple Solution: One of the Beagle Boys suggests they wait until the tournament ends and steal the trophy from the winner. This is acknowledged as a clever idea, but the lead Beagle points that winning the soccer tournament will net them the trophy "nice and legal."
- Tempting Fate:
- Scrooge gave the boys a trophy he found through his stash believing it to be mere rubbish with even the boys thinking so until a museum curator informs them otherwise. Sure enough, they take advantage of this to get Scrooge to cooperate.
- When the boys bring Scrooge to a sports store to get them a new ball, Scrooge states that the one they have appears to work well enough. Cue the ball bursting as Scrooge bounces it.
- Unnecessary Roughness: After Goofy manages to catch the team up against the Beagle Boys, the latter decide to beat him up. This results in them getting a penalty, allowing Goofy to get the winning shot in.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Goofy is kidnapped by the Beagle Boys, Scrooge attempts to give a motivational speech to the team. However, it's made clear that the motivation is for the trophy which the boys call him out on:One of the Nephews: You don't care anything about Sport Goofy. And after all he's done for this team.
