What happens when a star player ends up on the worst team? He either learns to lose or he stops playing the game he loves. These are the choices facing Jake, who has gone from champion to last place, testing his sportsmanship every time his soccer team gets waxed. It is his teammate Kevin who shows Jake that being a good captain means scoring and assisting off the field as much as being the star player on it. The latest in #1 bestseller Mike Lupica's Comeback Kids novels is a cheer-worthy ode to the one sport played by more kids across the country than any other--in the summer of the next World Cup. Jake is accustomed to being a soccer star on winning teams, so when he ends up on the losing side, he is flummoxed. His teammates think he is arrogant, and he has trouble getting along with one in particular. Jake’s ability to read the flow of a soccer match makes him a good player, though, and he gradually learns to develop a similar ability with his teammates personalities, eventually earning their respect and bringing the story to a victorious close. An enjoyable sports story with lots of action. Grades 4-6. --Todd Morning Praise for Mike Lupica's novels: "Lupica is the greatest sports writer for middle school readers."-- VOYA on True Legend "Lupica has the knowledge of the game and the lean prose to make a taut, realistic story not just about the game but about heart, character, and family."-- Kirkus Reviews on Travel Team * "The dialogue crackles, and the rich cast of supporting characters nearly steals the show. Top-notch entertainment in the Carl Hiaasen mold."-- Booklist , starred review of Heat "Lupica gives his readers a behind-the-scenes look at major league sports. In this novel, he adds genuine insights into family dynamics."-- Booklist on The Batboy "Lupica will win a Pulitzer for his sportswriting one day (he should have won it already)." -- The New York Times on Heat Mike Lupica is one of the most prominent sports writers in America. His longevity at the top of his field is based on his experience and insider’s knowledge, coupled with a provocative presentation that takes an uncompromising look at the tumultuous world of professional sports. Today he is a syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News , which includes his popular “Shooting from the Lip” column, which appears every Sunday. He began his newspaper career covering the New York Knicks for the New York Post at age 23. He became the youngest columnist ever at a New York paper with the New York Daily News , which he joined in 1977. For more than 30 years, Lupica has added magazines, novels, sports biographies, other non-fiction books on sports, as well as television to his professional resume. For the past fifteen years, he has been a TV anchor for ESPN’s The Sports Reporters . He also hosted his own program, The Mike Lupica Show on ESPN2. In 1987, Lupica launched “The Sporting Life” column in Esquire magazine. He has published articles in other magazines, including Sport, World Tennis, Tennis, Golf Digest, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, ESPN: The Magazine, Men’s Journal and Parade . He has received numerous honors, including the 2003 Jim Murray Award from the National Football Foundation. Mike Lupica co-wrote autobiographies with Reggie Jackson and Bill Parcells, collaborated with noted author and screenwriter, William Goldman on Wait ‘Till Next Year , and wrote The Summer of ’98, Mad as Hell: How Sports Got Away from the Fans and How We Get It Back and Shooting From the Lip , a collection of columns. In addition, he has written a number of novels, including Dead Air, Extra Credits, Limited Partner, Jump, Full Court Press, Red Zone, Too Far and national bestsellers Wild Pitch and Bump and Run. Dead Air was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Mystery and became a CBS television move, “Money, Power, Murder” to which Lupica contributed the teleplay. Over the years he has been a regular on the CBS Morning News, Good Morning America and The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour . On the radio, he has made frequent appearances on Imus in the Morning since the early 1980s. His previous young adult novels, Travel Team, Heat, Miracle on 49th Street, and the summer hit for 2007, Summer Ball , have shot up the New York Times bestseller list. Lupica is also what he describes as a “serial Little League coach,” a youth basketball coach, and a soccer coach for his four children, three sons and a daughter. He and his family live in Connecticut. Jake Stuart was the man now. Oh yeah, definitely the man, playing the only position he ever wanted to play, center mid, feeling like the center of everything now, the whole game going through him. Breaking into the clear at midfield, plenty of green in front of him, dribbling the ball like a total pro, like one of his heroes, the ball on a string with both feet, Jake feeling the way he always did in moments like these, as if the field were tilting awa