Four and a half years ago Marco Fabian was playing in his second World Cup for Mexico, which opened the tournament by beating top-ranked Germany before more than 78,000 fans in Moscow’s massive Luzhniki Stadium.
Last Wednesday, Fabian was playing in his third Major Arena Soccer League game for the Empire Strykers, who lost to the Tacoma Stars before 2,001 fans at the spartan Toyota Arena in Ontario.
In Russia, and in the German Bundesliga before that, Fabian played on lush grass carpets manicured for soccer. In Ontario, he played on a real carpet, one laid out in pieces over a hockey rink.