Thirteen-year-old Josh joins an elite travel league soccer team on which the individual members are all talented but not playing well as a team, so their coach suggests that they do some team-building exercises.

Eighth-grade soccer forward Nick Osborne and his teammates are highly competitive but, with help from his soccer-playing aunt, Nick begins to see that good sportsmanship is more important than winning. Includes a recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and the real story behind the novel.