“The past is never dead. It’s not even past,” wrote the Nobel Prize in Literature winner William Faulkner, who is one of the most revered writers in American literature. The quote, which comes from his fictional work ‘Requiem for a Nun’, is a reminder that for better or for worse, the past lives on forever and that it’s impossible to ignore.
The quote is particularly pertinent in the context of Saturday’s soccer game between the USA and Vietnam. Group E’s opening encounter between the United States Women’s Team and the Southeast Asian side is so much more than just a football match. It’s symbolic and somewhat cyclical, particularly in a historic sense.
Despite the nations coming together amicably in a special celebration of sport and progress at the Women’s World Cup, it was not too long ago that the relationship between them on a political and governmental level was starkly different. In fact at one stage, the two countries could not have been politically further apart, which is something that saw them share one of the most complex and troubled relationships between two countries during the 20th century.
By early 1969, four years after the Gulf of Tonkin incident– a event which triggered tensions to boil over and started the conflict in Vietnam-, there were well over half a million US troops stationed in Vietnam. Death and destruction ravaged the country as millions of lives were lost in the Vietnam war- a conflict that lasted almost 20 years.
Soccer and Reunification
Soccer is practically a religion in the Southeast Asian country and it’s not hard to understand why. The ‘beautiful game’ has been credited on many an occasion for unifying the north and south after the Vietnam War. The sport played a key role in bridging the gap between the two halves of the country that for so long were separated by the 17th parallel.
It was precisely in 1976, just months after ‘Reunification Day’ and the end of the War, when what has become an iconic football match helped to unite the north and the south of the country– something that was considered incredibly difficult given the fundamental cultural and historical differences between the two. Let’s not forget that they were completely separated for 22 years.
Le Buu, the country’s general director of sports administration, was instructed by his superiors to arrange a soccer match between two teams from each side- it was the new socialist republic government’s attempt to finding initiatives to bring the unify the country under one flag. By the middle of the year, the teams were prepped and ready: the north would be represented by The General Department of Railways FC– who coincidentally were building a new railway line to connect that one from one end of the country to the other- and the south by the port workers of Saigon Port FC at the Reunification Stadium.
Murmurings of a ‘special match’ spread through the city and one late night of December, 40,000 locals in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh) crammed into the stadium which had a capacity of just 25,000 to watch the General Department of Railways- who played a 4-3-3 formation and launched long balls in to the oppositions half as much as they could- defeat Saigon Port FC by two goals to nil. The atmosphere was festive during and after the game and it helped locals realize that those from the north were really no different to them. The game was labelled a “victory for the reunification of the north and south,” by a local reporter at the time.
Despite women’s football only being established in Vietnam in 1900 and not playing their first match until 1997, the ‘Golden Star Women Warriors’ have been one of the strongest steams in Southeast Asia. Having won the Southeast Asian Games on eight occasions, the women’s team will now play their first ever World Cup game against the USA- a historic foe who, thanks to sport and the influence of soccer, has become a friend. This game is so much more than just the 22 players on the pitch.