How to Make the World Cup and Survive Grade Five by Carla Fitzgerald

' It' s easy to be an armchair critic but much harder when you' re the one making the decisions.' Eleven-year-old Ronni is basically a professional athlete … at watching sport. If it' s on a screen, she' s glued to it, just like her parents. But when Ronni and her best friend, Kai, are recruited to secretly coach the Australian women' s soccer team for the World Cup qualifiers, she discovers life looks very different on the other side of the screen. Suddenly, Ronni' s running training sessions on the sly and sidestepping suspicious players. The team is floundering, social-media critics (including her own dad!) are piling on – and worst of all, Kai thinks her tactics are way off. Turns out coaching is tougher than it looks! With the team' s World Cup dreams slipping away and her friendship on the line, Ronni must choose: stay on the bench or get in the game?