Outcasts United: Chapter 28 Summary & Analysis

Luma leads an intense week of practice that culminates in a match between the Under Thirteens and the Under Fifteens. When the game begins, the Thirteens show that they have “come to play.” They fight for the ball and make crisp passes, but they have a harder time making their shots. In the end, the Fifteens win 3-1, but the Thirteens have played a respectable game. Luma concludes, “it was an okay scrimmage.” The Fugees know that this is high praise.

On Sunday morning, the Thirteens arrive for the first of two games, against Blue Springs. When the game begins, the Thirteens play like they did against the Fifteens: they control the ball but are unable to score. They start to lose confidence, and Blue Springs scores. The Fugees are losing 1-0. At halftime, Luma is livid. She is angry that they talked a big game, but Blue Springs is outhustling them. She says that she’s been waiting to see them play their best and she hasn’t seen it yet.

The Fugees return to the field, more focused and determined to prove Luma wrong. They go on the attack several times, until Josiah is able to score. They continue to fire shots, but none of them go into the net. Qendrim tells the rest of the team to move farther up the field to keep the pressure on.

Bien takes a corner kick and the Fugees work together to and cross it to Idwar, who is able to kick the ball into the goal. The Fugees are ahead 2-1. A few minutes later, Jeremiah takes a cannon shot from fifteen yards out, scoring a beautiful goal. Luma tells them that their first half “sucked so bad,” but that she almost had a heart attack to see them come back. The boys applaud their victory, but the game has come at a cost: Qendrim is limping from a twisted ankle, and the rest of the Fugees are tired.

The boys play another game less than an hour afterward, but they are exhausted. The game ends 2-1 with the Fugees losing. The next day, the Fugees are playing another team called the Concorde Fire. Luma learns that if they win the game, they’d go to the finals. Luma tells the Fugees to “play to the whistle,” warning them that if they lose or tie the game, they will be going home.

Just before the game starts, the Fugees see “a strange sight” on the sideline. Some older Fugees players have come out to cheer them on, as well as Josiah’s teacher and several volunteers from resettlement agencies. They have fans for the first time.

The Fugees come out shooting, going after every ball. With eight minutes left in the half, Jeremiah carves through the Fire defense and scores. Luma gathers them at halftime and tells them about the adjustments she wants. She reminds them of the stakes and tells them to get two more goals.

In the second half, the Fugees continue to fire shots on goal, but they miss each time. The Fire, meanwhile, is able to get past the Fugees and score on Eldin. The Fugees aren’t finished, however; with fifteen minutes left in the game, Josiah controls a loose ball and shoots it just over the goalie’s head. The score is 2-1, Fugees.

The final minutes of the game are “thrilling,” and other teams come out to watch. They start to learn the names of the players and cheer them on. The Fire can’t find an opening, until the their star player gets free of the Fugees’ defense and sends the ball sailing over Eldin’s fingertips with only a few moments left. Luma is angry—she tells the boys that they had the other team at 2-1 but couldn’t finish the game. “You deserved to lose,” she says. “You didn’t play your best.” The boys gather their equipment sadly, their eyes dropping.

The holidays approach rapidly. Luma tells the Under Thirteens and Under Fifteens that she will enter the boys in a big tournament if they can raise the $1000 necessary to go. They organize car washes, but the boys come up $130 short. She tells them that they cannot asks their parents for money, and that they need to ask themselves what they would do for their team. Jeremiah takes up this request: he and other boys rake leaves to make up the extra money and tell Luma that they’ve made the $130.

Luma spends Christmas visiting her players’ families and delivering boxes of food. The day after Christmas, Luma receives a letter from the Town of Clarkston, informing her that she can no longer use Armistead field because the city is reactivating its youth recreation program. Luma is stunned.

Luma calls Mayor Swaney, but he won’t take her call. Later, Luma discovers that the letter was authorized by Swaney, who has no authority to go against the city council’s vote. Additionally, the reasoning behind the letter is a lie—there is no recreation program planned. Later, Mayor Swaney changes his story entirely, explaining that he had seen adult refugees playing soccer in the park, assumed they were affiliated with the Fugees, and kicked the team out for breaking their agreement. But the Fugees have no affiliation with any adult soccer players.

In the meantime, Luma has to find a place to practice. She logs onto Google Earth to try and find another field. She zooms further and further back from Clarkston, trying to find a place to play. Atlanta has a lot of open space, but those fields are out of reach for the Fugees. She pulls back further and further, as the rest of America comes into view, then other countries and continents. Someday, St. John writes, “the Fugees would find a home.”