Published by the government of Zimbabwe
3 November 2007
opinion
Harare — ONE of the most popular programmes on ZTV during the '80s was an American television series -- based on the Vietnam War -- aptly titled Tour of Duty.
Its stars, like Lieutenant Myron Goldman and Staff Sergeant Zeke Anderson, became household names around the globe during that period and the programme won an Emmy Award in '88.
Tour of Duty was not the first and last of the motion pictures based on the Vietnam War -- Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam and Missing In Action were other blockbuster movies.
But Tour of Duty was landmark in that it was the first to really tackle such issues like racism, suicide, civilian casualties, drug abuse and a closer look on the shattered lives of the troops.
Significantly it also had an in-depth look at the confusion that greeted the American troops, who finally made it home alive, on their return to their beloved ones.
More than any other movie, Tour of Duty shaped my early understanding of the Vietnam War that raged on from 1959 to April 30 1975 when the triumphant Communist North Vietnamese troops finally overran southern resistance and united their country under one flag.
I did not know it then that being an American film Tour of Duty probably had a bias towards the Americans who also fought in the Vietnam War.
With time I have since broadened my knowledge of the Vietnam War but that certainly is not the subject of this edition of this column, which in essence should have started with an apology following its disappearance from the radar last weekend.
Well, on Tuesday I landed in Hanoi -- the steamy capital of Vietnam -- after a marathon trip from home that never seemed to end with connections in Johannesburg, Hong Kong and finally, after 23 hours of flying and waiting, getting here.
It's my first visit to Vietnam -- one of the most densely populated countries in the world with more than 87 million people spread over a winding stretch of land between Laos and Cambodia on one side and the South China sea on the east.
It's now close to 20 years since I first saw Tour of Duty and there was something distinctly familiar about Hanoi to the pictures I used to see in that television series -- the big number of motor cycles on the streets, the dense population, the smiling faces of the locals etc, etc.
We are here on another tour of duty -- not the American style mission of the '60s and '70s that inspired Tour of Duty -- but a different game altogether where the visiting troops here carry football boots rather than guns.
A platoon of Warriors -- drawn exclusively from the domestic Premiership -- landed here on Tuesday for their second assignment in South East Asia in as many months.
The mission is to play in the Agribank Cup -- an annual football tournament held by the Vietnamese Football Federation that usually features the hosts and three foreign sides.
The organisers of the tournament emphasise on the need to bring development sides -- especially with the majority of the players being the Under-23 bracket -- but the carrot of a US$40 000 winners' cheque has resulted in the bending of the rules in recent years.
Now teams have been bringing in their best players, irrespective of their age, as they try to boost their chances of winning the tournament and the prize money.
A number of strong African teams, notably Cameroon, have played in the Agribank Cup before and this year's competition is also of a high level with Finland -- ranked within the top 50 in the world -- sending a team to compete here.
Finland won the tournament last year.
Now they are back to defend their title and although they don't have most of their first team players like Liverpool's Sami Hypia, they have a very competitive squad predominantly made up of players who ply their trade in the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Sweden.
The football leagues in those countries are of a very competitive standard.
Uzbekistan, who are also ranked higher than Zimbabwe, have also sent a strong team here.
Maybe Uzbekistan's recent result -- a comprehensive 5-0 victory in Malaysia -- is more relevant to us given that the same Malaysia team won the Merdeka Cup where a Zimbabwe Select side, made up of about six players who are on this tour, lost in the semi-finals.
Hosts Vietnam are the only ones who are ranked lower than Zimbabwe among the teams that are taking part in this year's edition of the Agribank Cup.
Zimbabwe played their first match of the tournament on Thursday and, after leading 2-0 at the interval, they collapsed in the rain in the second half and lost the game 2-3 with the winning goal coming just three minutes to the end.
Their opponents were defending champions Finland who impressed me with their physical presence and technical abilities, their simple but effective football of passing and supporting their teammates and their discipline to stick to their formation and instructions from the bench.
In short, the Finnish players impressed me with their professionalism and, even when they were 0-2 down, they did not abandon their style and neither did they betray their defensive duties in the name of trying to attack with recklessness in search of the two goals to turn the game around.
They kept committed to their values -- stroking the ball around with aplomb -- and waiting for that moment when they would open the Zimbabwe defence and find a way past big goalkeeper Energy Murambadoro.
Of course, they were a little lucky with the free-kick from where they got their first goal and the offside flag, which somehow stayed down, from which they got their killer third goal in the dying stages of the game.
But you need to work very hard to be rewarded with a little bit of luck and you have to give the Finnish players the credit they deserve for what the great effort they put into this game.
While Finland, in the final analysis, won because of superior teammwork, the individual star of the game was a Zimbabwean player whose profile is growing with each passing week.
The outstanding player on the afternoon was not any of the Finnish players who have honed their skills at the Scandinavian clubs like Rosenberg but an unheralded Zimbabwean player whose emerging skills have been honed on dusty streets back home.
The best player on the afternoon was not one of those playing professional football abroad, like the majority of the young Fins in this team, but one whose team might be playing in the unfashionable world of Division One next year.
Kingstone Nkhatha reminds me a lot about George Nechironga.
He is not really as stocky as George was but there is a physical presence about him that reminds me so much about the teenage Nechironga at the turn of the '90s.
George was slightly bigger than Kingstone and that is why we all called him Tyson after the legendary American boxer called Mike who ruled the world at the young age of 20 by winning the heavyweight title with a sensational second round knockout of Trevor Berbick.
George exploded on the scene at about the same time that a teenage baby-faced forward called Peter Ndlovu was also emerging on the scene in the City of Kings.
It was an exciting period for Zimbabwean football with Adam Ndlovu also emerging on the scene among a clutch of promising players who included Agent Sawu, Wilfred and William Mugeyi, Memory Mucherahowa, Henry McKop to name but just a few.
George was given the responsibility to lead the CAPS United attack at a very young age but such was his talent that he made such a big assignment look very easy with consistent performances week in and week out.
We all began talking about CAPS United having finally found the true heir to Shacky Tauro and George looked the real thing with pace, power and accuracy -- everything that a centre forward has ever dreamt about.
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