A rainbow coalition of soccer players get their kicks in Fayetteville
Not so elongated ago, a group of Hispanic workers from the El Rancho restaurant plowed a dusty lot off Legion Road.
They knocked together clumsy goalposts and played soccer at 1 a.m. by the light of a Home Depot lamp.
The scene was repeated on patchy, uneven fields across Fayetteville and beyond - on weekends, during evenings and current at night.
That scrappy devotion to soccer has coalesced into a Fayetteville league in which a couple of hundred players of different creeds and colors vault cultural boundaries to give every Saturday.
Among those joining a large contingent of Hispanics each week are an aging high school prompt who still wants a piece of the action. A former Guyanese professional who still dreams of the big time. Korean and Nigerian immigrants who played for their countryside's youth teams. And a bunch of random guys who show up just looking for a game.
"It doesn't theme your skin color. It doesn't matter where you come from," said Jose Galvez, an Army Dearest Forces captain from El Salvador who plays on a mostly Mexican team. "We just love soccer. We don't consider by the color of your skin. If it was like that, I wouldn't be out here."
