Sport Goofy in Soccermania

Sport Goofy in Soccermania is a Disney animated featurette that first aired on television in 1987.

During its debut, it was preceded by a mockumentary showing past Goofy cartoons of him always getting everything wrong, leading into this special where the audience is finally shown a competent, athletic Goofy who is the hero.

Plot
Huey, Dewey and Louie ask for help from Scrooge McDuck for their new soccer team by requesting that he donate $1.49 to buy a championship trophy. Scrooge, being his typical stingy self, goes into a rant of "A dollar forty-nine! That is a lot of money!" and instead gives his nephews an old trophy of his that he thinks is worthless, but the boys meet the curator of the Duckburg Museum, who sees it is a rare artifact worth a million dollars, causing Scrooge to gain a reputation as a generous philanthropist throughout Duckburg.

To win back the trophy, Scrooge is now made to sponsor his nephews, where he is taken to a sporting goods store owned by a surprisingly athletic and agile Goofy. Scrooge enlists the aid of Goofy, soon known by the nickname of "Sport Goofy", who becomes the team's coach when the teammates of Scrooge's nephews are shown as ragtag misfits. The team, christened the "McDuck Greenbacks", come together under Goofy's patient coaching, sharpen their soccer skills and register to compete in the tournament.

Unfortunately, the Beagle Boys know of the trophy's value and enter the soccer tournament as well in order to "walk away with the trophy, all nice and legal" rather than steal it. When one of the Beagle Boys comments that they're out of shape and don't know anything about soccer, their leader says all they have to do is cheat.

The tournament comes down to the McDuck Greenbacks facing the Beagle Boys in the finals; the Beagles decide that Sport Goofy is a problem and kidnap him. The team is disheartened by the loss of their coach and team captain, but resolve to go on without him. Despite the excellent playing by the team members, the Beagle Boys engage in outright cheating and a nearsighted referee keeps declaring the Beagles' goals legit, ending the first half with a score of 10-0. Sport Goofy quietly escapes the Beagles' hideout and gets to the field for the second half. The return of Sport Goofy encourages the Greenbacks into incredible playing that not even the Beagles' cheating can counter, causing a comeback of 10-10.

When the enraged Beagles resort to outright physically assaulting Sport Goofy, Scrooge finally makes the referee wear his glasses and see what is happening, causing the ref to cry foul and set up a penalty shot with only Sport Goofy and the Beagles' goalie. The Beagles' team captain has secretly placed a bomb inside the ball and orders another Beagle to push the red button on a remote control when Goofy is ready to take his shot. Unfortunately, that Beagle is so uneducated that he keeps pushing the green button, causing Sport Goofy to easily make the penalty goal past an overconfident goalie, thus the Greenbacks win 11-10. All of Duckburg rejoices except for the Beagles, whose angry captain pushes the red button, causing the ball to explode and send all the Beagle Boys flying into a waiting police van.

Now that Scrooge has his trophy back, he donates it to the Duckburg Museum and joins the McDuck Greenbacks in their championship team photo.

Production
This cartoon marks the first time that Russi Taylor voiced Huey, Dewey and Louie, taking the role from Clarence Nash, and also the first time that the Beagle Boys and Gyro Gearloose ever appeared in animation.

Joe Ranft and Tad Stones wrote the story. Ranft went on to work for Pixar while Stones would continue to work with Walt Disney Television Animation, turning the pairing of Scrooge McDuck and Donald's nephews into the TV series DuckTales.

Sport Goofy is one of the few Disney cartoons where Uncle Scrooge was not voiced by his official voice actor Alan Young, but instead was voiced by Will Ryan.

It was Darrell Van Citters' last production with Disney. He would eventually move over to Warner Bros. for a couple years before forming his own animation company, Renegade Animation.

Characters

 * Goofy
 * Scrooge McDuck
 * Huey, Dewey and Louie
 * The Beagle Boys
 * Gyro Gearloose (cameo)
 * Grandma Duck (cameo)
 * Donald Duck (cameo)
 * Roger Rabbit (cameo)

Voice Cast

 * Tony Pope - Goofy
 * Will Ryan - Scrooge McDuck, Gyro Gearloose, Beagle Boys
 * Russi Taylor - Huey, Dewey, and Louie
 * Jack Angel
 * Phil Proctor
 * Chick Hearn - Announcer