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So today I traveled to see the Afghan soccer tournament. Thousands of Afghans had gathered here to play soccer, But it wasn't just soccer. It was more of a cultural experience and an event to socialize. Nonetheless, It was a pretty decent experience. However, I was quite surprised to find out Afghans in the west were not as conservative as I thought or assumed they would be. In fact, It was the opposite of what I had initially thought.
I was also quite pleased to find out we have so many talented and educated Pashtuns
Two Kandahari teams had made it to the final stages of the game, The first Kandahari team lost in the Semi-Finals to the Kabuli team of Virginia. However, The other Kandahari team had made it to the finals. They absolutely destroyed team Virginia/Kabul. They won 5-0.
A few things that I liked were,
1)They paused the game to get up and pray.
2)Pashto was very alive. Nearly all the announcements were in Pashto since 80-90percent of the crowd was Pashtun. They were a few Pashtuns from Pakistan who came to the soccer tournament to support Pashtuns.
3)It was great to see how talented they were. In fact, it was amazing. some of the goals were just spectacular.
4)There was this one educated Pashtun man (I wish I knew his name) Who got on stage and gave a beautiful speech in Pashto. He said, All Afghans despite being Uzbek,Tajik,Pashtun should unify under the name Afghan,thousands of Afghans started clapping for him. All I know is that he was a doctor.
A few things that I disliked were,
1)When the Kandahari team declared that they must pray. The Kandahari team(with their uniform and everything on) started praying while the Kabuli's flat out stared at us as if we were doing an alien activity. I was quite shocked. The coach, the team they all watched us pray. They all just watched us. A few people who came from Virginia prayed with us, However, the staff were all just looking at us so confused.
2)Despite the teams belonging to each "State of USA" They were referred to as "Team Kandahar" and "Team Kabuli" by nearly everyone. A Paktiawal from Virginia who happened to be the lucky person to sit next to me was ranting on how much he loves soccer and how he lives in Virginia, yet the coach never recruits him because he is not a dari speaker nor Kabuli.
3)Team Kandahar literally made a Non-Pashto speaking Afghan sing in Pashto, and even had him under pressure to talk in Pashto. They could have just hired a Pashto singer.
I also felt as though the teams caused division, I felt as though it was more of a Pashtun vs Tajik game. And the Pashtuns humiliated them all in soccer. I mean seriously, What was the score 5 to nothing? Or 6 to nothing?(You can tell I was not really paying much attention to the scoreboard, but it was more than 4 goals to nothing.)
Pictures and videos below.
Link to the videos below,(You might need QuickTime player to view)
While I was walking up to pray, I just had to take this picture.
(I missed one entire Rakaat, cause my lazy phone stopped working right before it.)
Note: I apologize for the quality.
The singer was Ehsan Aman.
I was also quite pleased to find out we have so many talented and educated Pashtuns
Two Kandahari teams had made it to the final stages of the game, The first Kandahari team lost in the Semi-Finals to the Kabuli team of Virginia. However, The other Kandahari team had made it to the finals. They absolutely destroyed team Virginia/Kabul. They won 5-0.
A few things that I liked were,
1)They paused the game to get up and pray.
2)Pashto was very alive. Nearly all the announcements were in Pashto since 80-90percent of the crowd was Pashtun. They were a few Pashtuns from Pakistan who came to the soccer tournament to support Pashtuns.
3)It was great to see how talented they were. In fact, it was amazing. some of the goals were just spectacular.
4)There was this one educated Pashtun man (I wish I knew his name) Who got on stage and gave a beautiful speech in Pashto. He said, All Afghans despite being Uzbek,Tajik,Pashtun should unify under the name Afghan,thousands of Afghans started clapping for him. All I know is that he was a doctor.
A few things that I disliked were,
1)When the Kandahari team declared that they must pray. The Kandahari team(with their uniform and everything on) started praying while the Kabuli's flat out stared at us as if we were doing an alien activity. I was quite shocked. The coach, the team they all watched us pray. They all just watched us. A few people who came from Virginia prayed with us, However, the staff were all just looking at us so confused.
2)Despite the teams belonging to each "State of USA" They were referred to as "Team Kandahar" and "Team Kabuli" by nearly everyone. A Paktiawal from Virginia who happened to be the lucky person to sit next to me was ranting on how much he loves soccer and how he lives in Virginia, yet the coach never recruits him because he is not a dari speaker nor Kabuli.
3)Team Kandahar literally made a Non-Pashto speaking Afghan sing in Pashto, and even had him under pressure to talk in Pashto. They could have just hired a Pashto singer.
I also felt as though the teams caused division, I felt as though it was more of a Pashtun vs Tajik game. And the Pashtuns humiliated them all in soccer. I mean seriously, What was the score 5 to nothing? Or 6 to nothing?(You can tell I was not really paying much attention to the scoreboard, but it was more than 4 goals to nothing.)
Pictures and videos below.
Link to the videos below,(You might need QuickTime player to view)
While I was walking up to pray, I just had to take this picture.
(I missed one entire Rakaat, cause my lazy phone stopped working right before it.)
Note: I apologize for the quality.
The singer was Ehsan Aman.
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