AP Photo

October days are usually crisp and clear in Kabul, but last Friday soccer fans awoke to leaden skies and an intermittent drizzle.

Still, the open-air bleachers of Kabul’s main soccer stadium were packed, with 5,000 spectators, while outside the police, toting AK-47s and wooden batons, kept an overflow crowd at bay. It was the final match of the Afghan Premier League’s first season, a feverishly exciting day in a city whose youth desperately lack opportunities for wholesome entertainment.