CRUSHING IT

Three weeks before the Eighth-Grade Girls’ City Championship, two soccer players who are former best friends develop an anonymous online friendship in this queer sports romance that explores coming-of-age themes.

As captain of her soccer team, white girl Melanie Miller dreams of leading the team to a perfect winning season, especially after everything fell apart at the end of seventh grade, when Mel’s group of best friends, the Fearsome Foursome, fractured in half. White center midfielder Tory McNally said “one wrong thing” last year, and all except one of her best friends abandoned her. She still has Chloe from the Fearsome Foursome, plus her new stepbrother, Terrance (both of whom are Black), but she hesitates to open up about the problems weighing on her, like her distant relationship with her mom and the crush on her former best friend that ruined everything. Super-athletic Mel also has a secret: She writes poetry. Their identities disguised by anonymous usernames, Mel and Tory unknowingly reconnect on a school message board, rekindling their relationship as they confide in one another. Affirming family and friends surround the main characters as they struggle with changing relationships and insecurities about their identities; homophobia plays only a minor role in the conflict. Unfortunately, despite the fluttering romantic tension and fast, suspenseful pace, bland characterizations of the secondary characters that lean into common tropes diminish the overall appeal of this debut.

An engaging premise but not quite a game-winning goal.