The Greatest Day in Arab Soccer?
This is an edition of The Great Game, a newsletter about the 2022 World Cup—and how soccer explains the world. Sign up here.I was in a gym in Beirut the summer of 2010, a few weeks before the World Cup was to start. As was usual for Lebanese gyms in those days, everyone sat on benches and workout machines chatting and catching up. All looked good in their coordinated sporting outfits, and they all knew one another. Though I am Lebanese, I was clearly an outsider.