Arab vs. Russian Soccer Teams

Dear Diary:

My young Yemeni friend, Abdo, who attends high school in Bensonhurst, told me that he played soccer after school almost every day. “Usually,” he volunteered, “the teams are Arabs against Russians.”

I was surprised that among teenage American boys, longstanding ethnic, political and cultural forces, even antagonisms, continued to define the divisions among them.

When I asked him why the teams were segregated this way, he explained, “It lets us call out plays to our teammates without the other side figuring out what we are doing.”

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