The 1980 Olympic hockey team achieved a victory against the greatest odds in sports history. Everyone said they would not even get to the final, let alone beat one of the best teams of all time. Herb Brooks, the head coach of the team, had an unorthodox way of coaching. It was different than how he had coached all of his other teams in the past. Brooks was cut from the 1960 Olympic hockey team one week before the games started, and that team went on to win gold. Coach Brooks wanted redemption from this experience he had had 20 years earlier, and this drove his motivation to lead his team to victory. He was specifically motivated to beat the USSR team, whom were widely considered the best team in the world. This Everest goal was unheard of and even ridiculed, because like many Everest goals, it sounded unachievable. It was unexpected that any team could even keep up with the Soviet team, no one was thinking anyone would beat them. Coach Brooks was fully aware of the steepness of this goal, and he coached his team accordingly. Completing this goal was dependent on the team’s performance. The team was chosen specifically to work together. Having seen the results of the US All Star team playing against the USSR earlier in the year, Brooks knew that individual talent alone was not the key to victory …show more content…
At this point of the film the team had been chosen, and they had started to trust themselves. The “cone-head” line of offensive players had been established, and even though they came from different backgrounds they fostered complete trust in each other’s skills. A defining moment in this stage was after their first international game, they were told to do suicides on the rink. It was only until was one player declared the team they played for was the USA that the team could move to the next