For some 54,000 sport-loving Frenchmen and 8,000 visiting German fans, World War II finally ended one afternoon last week on a playing field in Paris' jammed Colombes Stadium. There two soccer teams representing the bitter enemies of three wars met in their first international match since 1937. But there were no incidents. Players of each team, carefully briefed on avoiding an untoward explosion, treated their opponents with elaborate politeness; nobody got hurt except a German center forward who fell down all by himself and banged his knee.
The crowd brought its own jumbled emotions. Many Frenchmen, spoiling for a victory on the...
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