In the heart of tiny Elma, Texas--a one-horse town, minus the horse--lies The Big Green. Once the site of local athletic triumphs, the field, like the town itself, has gone to seed. And with nothing to do and nowhere to do it, the handful of kids in Elma's two-room schoolhouse have just about given up on life before their lives have begun. But all that changes with the arrival of British schoolteacher Anna Montgomery. Faced with a group of young students--and an entire town--ranging from the outright hostile to the merely bored, Anna is determined to unlock their self-esteem. And she finds the key in soccer, her favorite game and, she assumes, everyone else's. Unfortunately, there's a catch. The fumbling Elma kids wouldn't know the World Cup from coffee cup. They need help. And it comes in the out-of-shape form of sheriff Tom Palmer, Elma's former football star whose waistline has become as overgrown as The Big Green itself.