Streets of Vietnam Foster Soccer Career
Dzung Tran’s first playground was on the battle-scarred streets of Nha Trang in southern Vietnam. As a youngster, he remembers going barefoot, playing soccer on avenues with his friends. The sounds and smells of war were never far away.
“It was a nightmare growing up over there,” said Tran. “There was a lot of killing, a lot of fighting, almost every day.”
Now 20 and six years removed from a harrowing escape from Vietnam, Tran has parlayed his street-learned skills into a livelihood. A first-round draft choice last summer of the San Diego Sockers, Tran signed a two-year contract with the Major Indoor Soccer League Club last week.
“It’s like a dream come true. I am so happy,” Tran said of joining the Sockers, who are the defending MISL champions and winners of four straight indoor titles. “I’m very proud to be able to play for best team in America.”
Tran’s formal soccer training began in 1973, two years before the Communist takeover of South Vietnam, when his father enrolled him in the Nha Trang Youth League. Soccer is by far the most popular sport in Vietnam, Tran said.
“I was lucky enough to get shoes and a soccer ball to play with,” Tran recalled. “My dad was a professional soccer player in Vietnam and that’s why I had a lot opportunity to play soccer.”
Tran was 14 when he fled Vietnam with his father and two younger brothers. The three swam out to a boat in the South China Sea and sailed due east to the Philippines with 42 others.
“It was pretty scary,” Tran said. “In the middle of the ocean we ran out of (fuel) oil and food. We floated in the ocean one day and one night and tried to get help from another ship. Finally a ship from Peru saw us. They didn’t let us on board, but they gave us oil and food.”
It took the group a week to reach the Philippines on the cramped 24-foot boat. The Trans spent six months in a refugee camp there before an American family from Salt Lake City sponsored their admission to the United States, Tran said.
Tran’s mother did not make the trip, staying behind with Tran’s two sisters, who were too young to swim. She died about three years ago and the girls are now being cared for by relatives. Efforts to bring his sisters to the United States have been unsuccessful, Tran said.
“We were pretty sad when we left,” said Tran. “But we had no choice. We didn’t have no freedom there. We left looking for freedom.”
After living in Salt Lake City for a few months, the Trans moved to Livermore, Calif., where Tran played on the high school soccer team as a freshman and sophomore.
The family moved again, this time to San Jose, and Tran blossomed as soccer player for San Jose High School. As a senior in 1983, he earned Most Valuable Player honors in the Santa Theresa Athletic League and Central Coast Section player of the year.
“He’s a good kid and just a great soccer player,” said Gene Dawson, San Jose High’s athletic director.
Tran enrolled at Foothill Community College and joined its soccer team, but he lost his college eligibility when he played just over two minutes with the professional San Jose Earthquakes during a May 4, 1984 exhibition game last year. Tran said he contested the decision by the Golden Gate Conference, but lost a court fight to be reinstated.
With his college career over, Tran continued playing in outdoor exhibition matches with the Earthquakes and drew the attention of Sockers scouts.
“He was getting rave notices playing exhibition games against foreign competition,” said Sockers Coach Ron Newman, who signed Tran after a weeklong tryout.
“We thought we should give this young lad a chance,” Newman said. “He’s got very deceptive skills. It looks as if he could become a very proficient indoor player.”
Tran has never played indoor soccer, so his rookie season will be a learning experience.
“We probably won’t reap the rewards until next year,” Newman said.
“For the first time, it is really difficult to play indoor,” Tran said. “But Ron is teaching me a lot of the little things. I’ll need a lot of help from Ron, the players and the other coaches. Hopefully, I’ll learn pretty fast.”
