The Brazilian word for a pickup soccer game, “pelada”—which literally means naked—is an athletic contest stripped bare of formality. Two former college soccer stars—Luke Boughen from Notre Dame and Gwendolyn Oxenham from Duke—not yet ready to call the game over, venture around the world in search of the sport and find that the experience of hardtop peladas in dusty town squares and back alleys is a world apart from the manicured green fields of their American upbringing. From a hotly contested game in a Bolivian prison courtyard, to Arabs and Jews playing together in Jerusalem, to young Ghanese boys kicking around balls they’ve sewn by hand themselves, to women playing in hijab in Iran, this thoughtful adventure is about the love of soccer and the people who play it. It is also a bittersweet reflection on learning how to live as a “has-been.”  TBW