Palestinian men's national soccer team plays with purpose, pressure

T.J. Quinn, ESPN Senior WriterMar 20, 2024, 01:34 PM ETCloseT.J. Quinn joined ESPN in November 2007 as an investigative reporter for ESPN's Enterprise Unit, which is charged with developing long-form, investigative features to be presented across multiple platforms.DOHA, Qatar -- She introduces herself by saying she has eight martyrs in her family.Rihad Mokdad is 56 and originally from Gaza, and she is walking to a soccer game with her daughter and granddaughters. It is a cool, misty night in the desert, and she, like the team, is a thousand miles from home. She has spent this January day, like most of her days since October, watching the news from Gaza on Al Jazeera.What she wants tonight is to feel Palestinian. In this Qatari city, with its Vegas-like manufactured glitz, a pristine creation of oil money, the Palestinian men's national soccer team is essentially a second home squad in the AFC Asian Cup tournament. The team is known as Al Fida'i, "the warriors," and is the only team wi...