Goofs

In the movie the game USSR vs. USA is broadcasted. This never happened. Moscow only showed a report about the success of the soviet team.

One of the leaders mentioned that the soviet players should play with foreign players more often. However at that time they did it in real life. THey were visiting the USA too and played 10-14 games within 2-3 weeks with student teams in the US. It was even creating attention from the local audience.

The head of the sport committee Sergey Pavlov was not in his Moscow office during the game but was in Munich.

Alexander Belov is showed saved while in real life he had sideburns at the time the movie is set.

Anatoli Polivoda, one of the actual players in the Soviet team, confirmed that they were never practicing the game on the trampoline, unlike it was shown in the movie.

While it is true that Alexander Belov had chest pain it only happened in 1976-77, 4-5 years after the movie's setting.

The game, that was in 1972, is played in the movie with much more modern rules, which existed much later. Dunkings e.g. was not allowed according to NCAA until 1976.

Female basketball was accepted at the Olympic games only in 1976 in Montreal, 4 years after the movie's setting.

The checkup by the police when the USSR team arrived in the Soviet Union actually happened but it happened in 1970 with the previous coach Alexandr Gomelskiy.

While Garanshin is walking in Essen in 1971 a subway sign is visible behind them. The first working underground network in Essen was opened in 1977.

In the movie Alzhan Zharmuhamedov was surprised to hear about contacts for the eyes. However the first contacts existed in 1927. Also in the final games in Munich he was playing without the contacts, as they were very hurtful and started wearing them long after that.

The coach said at the press conference that the American finally have to lose someone. However the USA already lost to the USSR in Basketball at the World Championships in 1963 in Brazil where USSR got the 3rd place and the USA the 4th place, as well as at the Championships 1959 in Chile where the USA got the 2nd place.

In the finals the soviet coach tries to motivate the team by calling "ostriches" and tell them to "open the wings and fly". However ostriches can't fly.