When we arrived at our Homestay on An Binh Island we heard cheering and yelling coming from the next door neighbor’s house. Our host smiled and explained that they were watching “the football match” (football meaning soccer, of course). Later when we were relaxing in hammocks we noticed some of the younger members of our host family circled around a laptop watching something intently and occasionally jumping up and shouting. When they noticed us staring they explained that Vietnam was in the semi-finals of the Asia Cup, further than they, or any other country in Southeast Asia, had ever made it. Vietnam won that game, sending them to the finals for the first time in history.

Obviously soccer is a much bigger deal in the rest of the world than it is in the United States so it was hard for me to guage how big of a deal this particulary cup was. I have to admit that my own knowledge of international soccer competition begins and ends with the World Cup. Our hosts and their neighbors were clearly excited but I had no sense of this being a national phenomenon- yet.

Flash forward a few days and we were in Hoi An on the day of the finals. We got up early to do some site seeing and as we wandered around the city we began to notice more and more people in Vietnamese flag T-shirts. Then, as they day progressed, motorbikes started driving by honking and waving the Vietnamese flag. Later still we noticed groups of teenagers on every corner passing out Vietnam flag stickers and headbands. In the hours before the 3 PM game all of the revelers came together into huge parades of motorbikes and bicycles, faces covered in stickers, careening around the city, honking their horns, waving flags, playing music and cheering. The festive atmosphere was infectious. Clearly this was a big deal.

We decided we had to watch the game (if for no other reason than that there would be nothing else to do since the entire population of Hoi An would certainly be watching). Our hostel had it on in the lobby and was serving cheap beer from their bar so we headed back there to grab a good seat. For me, watching people watch the game was more interesting than the game itself. The woman who ran the mini mart across the street from our hostel kept abandoning her business to run in and watch a few tense minutes with us. The young people working at the postal store down the block spent the first half huddled around a computer watching together before closing the store down at halftime so they could rush home for the second half.

The match started with an early goal from the opposing team, Uzbekistan. Then Vietnam tied it with a beautiful penalty kick right over the defenders’ heads. Then things slowed down, with the game still tied one to one at the end of second half. Finally, at the very end of overtime with about 30 seconds left, Uzbekistan scored again, winning the game.

We could feel the collective heartbreak of everyone around us. We decided to wait a little while before going out to dinner, hoping that the atmosphere out on the streets wouldn’t be too depressing. When we did make it out and down to the heart of the city the scene we beheld was anything but depressing. The moto-parades from earlier in the day had grown even larger and were making laps of the city center, cheering and waving. If you didn’t know the outcome of the game you would have assumed that Vietnam had won. It was an amazing display of national pride, sportsmanship and appreciation for their team and unlike behavior I have ever witnessed from fans of the loosing team in a major match. It made me a little jealous that the US doesn’t have a national team that brings the whole country together like that.

This cellphone video doesn’t do the parades justice but look at these fans celebrating AFTER losing the game:

As a funny side note, a few days later we met some travelers from Canada who had arrived in Vietnam late the night of the match, around 1 AM. We were all commenting on the revelry in the streets but when we told them that Vietnam had lost the game they were shocked: “What!? By all of the celebrating we thought they had won!”