Using the global appeal of soccer to address the pandemic of homelessness, the Homeless World Cup was first established in 2001 to give homeless people the opportunity to better their lives through sports. Five years later, 20,000 homeless people had competed on street soccer teams, with 500 players selected to represent 48 countries in the fourth annual Homeless World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, in the summer of 2006. Susan Koch?s Kicking It profiles seven of these players?men made invisible by poverty and addiction but who now emerge as compelling figures fighting to become heroes on the soccer pitch and find a way out of their situations.

Ultimately uplifting, though tempered by the sobering reality of its subjects? vulnerable lives, Kicking It captures their humanity and ability to overcome adversity?all through the simple game of soccer.