Mariano lives and breathes futbol, especially as it pertains to the Mexican national team/

He nervously drinks shots with friends and relatives, bickers over whether they are “traitors” for not rooting hard enough and trash talks one and all when they score.

“If I watch the Mexican team play, they never lose,” he brags, in Spanish with English subtitles. “I am their good luck charm.”

Mariano (Adrian Uribe) leads younger brother Pancho (Carlos Manuel Vesga) singing, “Ay, yai yai yai, Canta y no llores” after every win.

OK, it’s Mexico. He sings even after a draw. A man’s got to have something.

Something more than living like a 40something mooch in the house he grew up in, more than a cushy government job which he’s barely clinging to, more than vintage 70s hair, a ’70s mustache and a dishy, indulgent Colombian girlfriend, Luz (Julieth Restropo).

“Penalty Kick  (“La pena máxima”) is a wants-to-be-daffy soccer comedy from South of the Border, where guys with limited expectations for the future and jobs they hate obsess over futbol, not “football,” as they do North of the Border.

Mariano puts off trading cars, puts off getting a loan for the new apartment Luz craves, avoids helping his mom with her property taxes.

Everything takes a back seat to “the beautiful game.”

Which is why he makes the Big Bet. Ok, Big BETS.

He bets his uncle (José Sefami) all he has, against the quarrelsome, root-against-the-home-team old man, who owns the family home. He bets his boss.

As soccer eats up every male conversation in the city, at the office, at family gatherings, in the bars, you can see how this would happen. As some folks insist that “American soccer” has “advanced” and surpassed Mexico, you can see how the film reels from reality into fantasy.

The very idea.

So with all these bets, with all this money on the line, with Luz kept in the dark about what he’s done with their apartment savings, Mariano finds the universe conspiring to keep “their good luck charm (him)” from catching Sunday’s match, in person.

It’s no wonder the oft-drunk Mariano finds himself slacking off even more at work. It’s the stress! Time to visit the priest to find out what how much they should beg the Virgin of Guadalupe to ensure success in the next match with the U.S.

“Who’s in goal?” the priest wants to know. And how much can you donate to the Mother Church, my son?

The soccer-obsessed milieu is what’s funniest about comedies like this, “The Cup,” “The Van,” or “Holy Goalie.” Even death itself (not his) can deter Mariano from his date with destiny.

But here, the situations are more promising than the execution, I must say. All this juggling should lend itself to chuckles and giggles at the excess. It doesn’t.

There’s no suspense about whether they’ll make it to the match. The comic complications never build up a head of steam. The scheming just isn’t that funny.

Uribe, a star of Mexican TV and friendly rival of “Overboard” star Eugenio Derbez (Uribe had a bit part in that) has a comic style that doesn’t translate as easily. He’s not as broad, not as manic, more of a reactor than an actor.

The supporting players give him no leg up on laughs at all, and the slack pacing (Comedy works best when it is filmed close-up, and cut to dash by at a sprint.) lets potential laughs fizzle.

Though it starts promisingly, that first scene turns out to be the life of “Penalty Kick,” and its peak moment. An hour passes before the Big Game, where it all starts to come undone.

With “Penalty Kick,” you don’t have to wait long for the first laugh. You have to wait an eternity for the second.

MPAA Rating: TV-14, sex, death

Cast: Adrian Uribe, Julieth Restrepo, Carlos Manuel Vesga, José Sefami

Credits:Directed by Rodrigo Triana, script by  Dago García, Luis Felipe Salamanca. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:29