Plot: Teen-aged Londoner Jesminder Bhamra - Jess for short - is fanatical about football. She even uses a poster of her idol, footballer David Beckham, as her confidante. Although she only plays in pick-up games in the park with her male friends, she is naturally gifted at it. She's spotted by Juliette Paxton - Jules for short - who plays in a local women's league, and who talks Jess into coming to try out for her team. Jules has aspirations of playing in the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) professional league in the United States. Playing organized sports goes against Jess' traditional Punjabi parents' wants for her - especially her mother's - which are to go to law school and to learn how to cook Punjabi food so that she can attract a nice Punjabi husband. But Jess is determined to play on Jules' team regardless of her parents. Jess sees Jules as having the perfect situation, not realizing that Jules also has a mother who doesn't want her daughter to focus so much attention on football, but for slightly different reasons. The team's compassionate and sympathetic coach Joe tries to help Jess overcome any of these obstacles in whatever way he can. Jess has to try and reconcile these two aspects of her life, especially in the lead up to the final game at which an American scout will be in attendance who may be able to get both Jules and Jess one step closer to playing in the WUSA league if he likes what he sees. The game also unfortunately coincides with the rescheduled wedding of Jess' sister.
Alternative Plot: Jess Bhamra (Parminder Nagra), the daughter of a strict Indian couple (Anupam Kher, Shaheen Khan) in London, is not permitted to play organized soccer, even though she is 18. When Jess is playing for fun one day, her impressive skills are seen by Jules Paxton (Keira Knightley), who then convinces Jess to play for her semi-pro team. Jess uses elaborate excuses to hide her matches from her family while also dealing with her romantic feelings for her coach, Joe.
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