A Resilient Team for a Broken Nation

Afghanistan’s national soccer team played a rare match this week. But what, and whom, does the team represent?

BELEK, Turkey — Anoush Dastgir may be the hardest-working man in soccer, but by Saturday, his job had taken a toll.

Dastgir, the coach of Afghanistan’s men’s national team, was sitting in an empty restaurant at the hotel where he and his team were preparing for an exhibition match against Indonesia. It was 11 p.m., and Dastgir was battling what sounded like a heavy cold. Which wasn’t surprising, given he now had a dozen jobs to do.

Coaching a national soccer team is tough enough anywhere, but coaching Afghanistan has long had unique challenges.