Bosnia vs. America, on and off the pitch

When two teams take to the World Cup pitch, their national histories and politics take the field with them. Seldom is that weight as present as in Wednesday’s knockout stage game between the U.S. and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The U.S. played a decisive role in ending Bosnia’s nearly four-year war in the 1990s, a conflict…

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Bosnia’s starting lineup is also a map of its war

BELGRADE, Serbia — The nearly four-year Bosnian war in the 1990s set off a massive wave of displacement, with a third of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s pre-war population permanently leaving the country as refugees. Team captain Edin Džeko, a 40-year-old striker who left his native Sarajevo soon after the war, has recalled playing soccer in the…

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