Margins
Go for the Goal! book cover
Go for the Goal!
2012
First Published
3.53
Average Rating
153
Number of Pages

Josh and his talented travel league soccer teammates are having trouble coming together as a successful team—until he convinces them to try team-building exercises. Thirteen-year-old Josh tries out for the United, an elite travel league soccer team, and is thrilled when he makes the cut. But once the season is underway, he discovers that the practices are grueling and the other team members are prone to hogging the ball. All the other players are talented, but they each seem to be playing for themselves and not for the team. They can't seem to pull together enough to win a single game. Tired of always being in the losers bracket, Josh begins to wonder if he made a mistake by leaving his old team and his buddies. Should he quit the United? But just when Josh is about to give up on his new team, he makes a discovery: While doing a homework assignment about the World Cup soccer championships, he learns that the 1999 United States Women's World Cup team faced similar difficulties. Individually they were excellent athletes, but they just couldn't work together. How did the 1999 team win it all that year? By using team-building exercises. Fired up by this idea, Josh convinces his coach to try the same approach. At first his teammates are skeptical, but with time they turn the United into a real team!

Avg Rating
3.53
Number of Ratings
38
5 STARS
24%
4 STARS
26%
3 STARS
32%
2 STARS
16%
1 STARS
3%
goodreads

Author

Fred Bowen
Author · 29 books
Fred Bowen is the author of Peachtree’s popular Fred Bowen Sports Story and All-Star Sport Story series. A lifelong sports fanatic, he has coached youth league baseball, basketball, and soccer. His kids’ sports column “The Score” appears each week in the KidsPost section of the Washington Post. Bowen lives in Maryland.
548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2025 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved