Thirteen-year-old Dylan's whole life changes when his father dies. Not only do he and his mom have to move to a poor part of Vancouver, where he misses their nice home and his old school. But then he's also forced to join his new school's soccer team — a group of immigrant and refugee students who play on a rough, gravel field.

Angry and lonely, Dylan gets into a fight at school. As a punishment, he has to join the soccer team — the last thing he wants to do, because it reminds him of his old soccer teammates and everything else he has lost. But when he's mocked by his old team, the players he thought were his friends, Dylan becomes determined to show them he is still a winner by bringing his new team to the championship finals. Getting to know his new refugee teammates provides Dylan with a lesson on teamwork, opens his eyes about hardship, makes him rethink the idea of "loser" and shows him the true value of a goal that wins in sudden-death play — a golden goal.

This book is the first of a new set of novels about soccer teams of young refugees who have escaped war-torn areas of the world and moved to Canada.