The upcoming documentary “Unmatched: The Team That Changed the Beautiful Game” will make a bold claim: The trajectory of women’s soccer and women’s sports was forever altered by one University of Portland team.
Conceived and directed by filmmaker and UP alum Joe Kuffner, the film tells the story of the 2005 women’s soccer team, which won a national championship and featured sports icons Megan Rapinoe and Christine Sinclair on its roster.
The project is currently being filmed, with no firm release date set, according to Kuffner.
Kuffner describes the film’s storylines in three “buckets:” the team and its historic win, the alums it produced — including the leading goal scorer in international soccer history and a leading advocate of equal pay for the U.S. Women's National Team — and Portland, a city that has since embraced women’s soccer.
“There's greatness on the field [and] change makers off the field in the city that supports women's soccer unlike any other place in the world,” Kuffner said. “So that’s kind of like the little elevator pitch.”
A central argument of the documentary is the team’s impact on the state of women's sports today. Kuffner believes the 2005 team’s win spurred the next nine years of NCAA average attendance records for the program, which prepared the city for the National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL) Portland Thorns.
“This city had been primed by decades of treating women's soccer seriously,” Kuffner said. “If [the NWSL] didn't work in Portland, it couldn't work anywhere.”
Spectators converse at a women's soccer match during Megan Rapinoe's UP Athletics Hall of Fame induction night on September 28, 2024. Photo courtesy of Caitlin Crowley.
The Thorns’ success then strengthened a young NWSL, turning it into the valuable enterprise it is today.
“I think you can easily make an argument that the NWSL wouldn't have lasted if it wasn't for the Portland Thorns and the support that team had early on to carry the league,” Kuffner said. “And I think you can just as easily say that the Thorns wouldn’t have had that type of success without those UP teams that came before them.”
Kuffner’s idea for the film was born out of creative necessity. After leading another documentary following cancer patients through clinical trials for his day job at Providence Health, he started searching for his next story around the time of Rapinoe and Sinclair’s retirements from their respective international teams. Kuffner thought back to his college days at UP, where he sat in classrooms with the legendary players, and found a concept he couldn’t let go of.
“I don't know if there was a single moment, but it was a sort of realization that these two incredible global icons were college teammates at this tiny school, and the buzz around the city was real,” Kuffner said. “So it was just like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is a worthy story that needs to be told. It's an underdog story. It's a story about everything.’”
Kuffner is uniquely positioned to lead the project. He not only graduated from UP in 2005 but also grew up going to UP soccer games as a kid, hanging posters of legendary female Pilots on his bedroom wall, and eventually worked in the school’s marketing department post-grad.
“I was there at Merlo Field’s first game when it opened,” Kuffner said. “I grew up with posters of Tiffeny Milbrett and Shannon MacMillan on my wall. So just having that deep connection, knowing all the people at the university, there's a lot of trust there.”
Director Joe Kuffner behind the scenes of "Unmatched". Photo courtesy of Caitlin Crowley.
Kuffner reached out to UP’s athletics department with the film idea in early 2024, and the university has since helped connect him with sources and granted him access to records and photos, though Kuffner and his team maintain full editorial control.
Jason Brough, senior associate athletic director, received Kuffner’s call and was immediately on board with the idea.
“I loved it,” Brough said. “I think, as Joe's trying to point out in the documentary, [the success of the NWSL] kind of started here, and I think the University of Portland had a lot to do with that. We're filling Pioneer Courthouse Square with the city coming out to support [the 2005 team] in the middle of December. I don't think there's any place that had more of a community buy-in.”
The documentary will include a wide-ranging cast to tell its story. So far, the “Unmatched” crew has completed 27 interviews. Along with team members and soccer personnel, they’ve spoken with folks like Andrew Guest, a UP professor who’s researched women’s soccer, and Jenny Nguyen, founder of women’s sports-only sports bar, The Sports Bra, according to Kuffner.
Jen Tate, the film’s producer, says one of her favorite aspects of the project is hearing about the team’s bond and shared memories.
“I think each individual has their own experience, but they also have something collective that they shared,” Tate said. “Getting to hear how they describe each other and how they were each other's witness to this time and this greatness, that's a really cool thing to be able to tap into and ask someone about, like, ‘Tell me what it was like to be a part of this team, this magic.’”
One of Kuffner’s stand-out memories from filming was Rapinoe’s interview in September of 2024, the first conversation the crew shot. Though the team’s standard is around two hours, Kuffner only had 30 minutes to interview her, as Rapinoe was in town to be inducted into the UP Athletics Hall of Fame and had a packed schedule.
As the minutes ticked by, people trickled in to watch the soccer star on camera. Rapinoe’s fiancée, legendary women’s basketball player Sue Bird, joined President Robert Kelly, Vice President of Athletics Scott Leykam, and Portland Magazine Editor Jessica Murphy Moo in “crashing” the interview. The pressure was on as Kuffner navigated the moment.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God. I hope I don't sound like a total idiot,’” Kuffner said. “But it was great. Megan really is that same person that I knew when I was a student. She's obviously a high-profile person, but she's very generous.”
Though “Unmatched” is a soccer film, Tate, who is not a big soccer fan herself, feels strongly that it can impact people from all walks of life.
“This [team] is so important to this small group of people but so relatable, almost on a global level,” Tate said. “Anyone who hears the story will be like, ‘Oh yeah, we're gonna root for these underdogs.’”
While the documentary has no release date, the “Unmatched” team is aiming to complete filming this spring and hopes for a final cut by the end of 2026, in time for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027, according to Tate.
The crew’s next step is fundraising for post-production, seeking donations, grants and investors to hasten the film's progress. They’ve already won an Impact Grant from Oregon Film and an Amplify Portland Grant from the Portland Events & Film Office, according to Kuffner.
Once the film reaches the public, Tate’s goals for its impact are multifaceted. She says she loves the idea of creating “Portland heroes” for kids in the area through the stories of these players, and she sees value in creating something that positively depicts Portland as the city faces nationwide scrutiny.
Megan Rapinoe interacts with fans during her UP Athletics Hall of Fame induction night. Photo courtesy of Caitlin Crowley.
She also wants “Unmatched” to be a feel-good experience that feels like an “easy choice” for anyone.
“I love the idea of the easy – ‘Oh, this is what we're watching together as family tonight’ — because it's good for the soul,’” Tate said.
Kuffner hopes “Unmatched” reminds fans of their memories on Merlo Field and encourages more turnout for the Pilots, though the college sports landscape and the team’s success has changed.
“This is kind of a cheesy answer, but I genuinely hope that women's soccer fans in Portland watch this and remember how fun it was to come to games at UP [because] the business of college sports is so different now,” Kuffner said. “Maybe they're not top-five ranked or going to the Final Four every year. But [Merlo Field] is a beautiful place to see a game. I really hope that people remember how fun it was and come back.”
Maggie Dapp is the Editor-In-Chief of The Beacon. She can be reached at dapp26@up.edu.
