Can We Kick It? Puts Black Soccer History and Pay-to-Play Barriers in the 2026 Spotlight

What happened:

Watch the highlights:

The Guardian reports that Akbar Majeed’s new feature documentary, Can We Kick It?, tells the story of soccer through a Black lens and uses that history to ask hard questions about the future of the game in the United States. The film’s focus is not only cultural representation, but also the structural barriers that shape who gets to participate and who gets left out.

The story arrives at a sharp moment for US soccer. According to the Guardian, Majeed reflected on the legacy of the 2026 World Cup and specifically the effect of the US team’s collapse against Belgium in the last 16. His assessment was blunt: that final performance “did not help at all.”

Why it matters:

A World Cup on home soil is usually treated as a growth engine: more attention, more young players, more commercial energy, and a chance to convert casual viewers into long-term fans. The documentary’s framing challenges whether visibility alone can fix deeper problems. If the sport’s entry points remain expensive or unevenly distributed, a major tournament can raise interest without widening access.

The pay-to-play question is the practical hinge. The Guardian description points to barriers facing the game’s breakthrough, and in US soccer that debate often sits around development pathways, club costs, scouting reach, and whether elite participation is available to families outside well-resourced environments. The film appears to put those issues beside Black soccer history rather than treating them as separate conversations.

Tournament impact:

The most immediate tournament consequence is reputational rather than table-based. The 2026 World Cup was a chance for the US team to make a sporting argument at the exact moment the country had maximum attention. A last-16 exit to Belgium, described in the source as a collapse, weakens that argument and makes the off-field questions louder.

That does not mean the World Cup legacy is settled. It means the next phase will be judged less by slogans about growth and more by measurable changes: who gets recruited, who can afford serious development, and whether Black communities are treated as central to the sport’s future rather than as an overlooked audience.

What to watch:

The key follow-up is whether Can We Kick It? becomes part of a broader policy conversation inside US soccer or remains mainly a cultural document. The tournament cycle after 2026 will test whether federation leaders, clubs, academies, and community programs respond to the access questions the film raises.

Confidence:

Confirmed by the source: the documentary is by Akbar Majeed, examines soccer through a Black lens, raises questions about pay-to-play and barriers, and includes Majeed’s criticism of the US team’s last-16 performance against Belgium. Still needing follow-up: the film’s specific policy proposals, distribution details, and any formal response from US soccer institutions.