The members of the Tuesday night Guardians Football Club speak 10 different languages and come from seven countries on four continents. There’s Bekzat Baylarbekov, a stocky defender born in Kazakhstan, who moved to the United States from Siberia in 2013. There’s Sergio Hurtado, a Colombian midfielder who came here in the third grade. There’s coach and player Ozer Kocdemir, who emigrated from Sweden in 2013. If it seems like the Guardians club is the soccer pitch version of the United Nations, that’s by design. The club was started in 2014 by Jason Brooks, a 33-year-old player, coach, and die-hard fan who was bothered that—even in heterogeneous Atlanta—soccer tended to break down along racial or socioeconomic lines. “There are a lot of nice fields on other…View Original Post
The members of the Tuesday night Guardians Football Club speak 10 different languages and come from seven countries on four continents. There’s Bekzat Baylarbekov, a stocky defender born in Kazakhstan, who moved to the United States from Siberia in 2013. There’s Sergio Hurtado, a Colombian midfielder who came here in the third grade. There’s coach and player Ozer Kocdemir, who emigrated from Sweden in 2013. If it seems like the Guardians club is the soccer pitch version of the United Nations, that’s by design. The club was started in 2014 by Jason Brooks, a 33-year-old player, coach, and die-hard fan who was bothered that—even in heterogeneous Atlanta—soccer tended to break down along racial or socioeconomic lines. “There are a lot of nice fields on other…View Original Post
