...and Warner takes the goal-kick, finds Shakes, he gets past one man, lays it off to Granado, looking for space in midfield, gets support from Sunday, he's surging forward now with nippy little Biseswar making himself available on the edge of the Swedish area. This Trinidad and Tobago team, ah'm, I mean, these players representing Trinidad and Tobago, are really looking good.
Who vex, vex, but I make no apologies for going on and on about the prospect of a collection of opportunistic recruits playing for this country-or even sitting on the bench-in Germany in June.
It crawls the blood to read the release from TTFF Media earlier this week in which Brent Sancho happily informs us that goalkeeper Anthony Warner is being taught the words to the National Anthem. It's a big mistake though, because given his English upbringing, Warner will obviously encounter a grammatical crisis when it comes to the part where "every creed and race finds an equal place". Then again, given the general credo of expediency, I suppose the relevant verse of the late Pat Castagne's composition can be altered to be truly reflective of the policy of convenience so that "every, creed, race and nationality find an equal place".
Inevitably, there are other issues surrounding the historic first appearance in a senior World Cup football finals in less than five months' time. But the tickets and tour packages controversy, along with the promised government rewards for the players, will all be sorted out in good time.
These matters are really about making political capital of the biggest event of the year, and are being closely followed, not just by sportswriters, but also by editors, columnists and letter-writers.
Yet, I prefer to focus on the football itself, the team that will take the field in the national colours. And let me clarify another point about this whole thing here. At issue is not players who have previously represented the country at any level or had always made clear their desire to play for their homeland, even if they were never given the chance. No, at issue is the sudden appearance of names from Europe, Africa, North America and who knows where else in the coming weeks, all claiming a connection to Trinidad and Tobago and a desire to get a tryout from Leo Beenhakker.
Again, proponents of this obscene charade will refer to the fact that countries bigger and infinitely more significant than us on the football front do the same thing, so what is all the fuss about? If you are happy going the way of expediency, then that is your business. If you are comfortable mimicking the so-called First World nations who dangle their passports in front of foreign sports stars and leave deserving ordinary people waiting for years and years, then that is your right.
The defenders of this foolish philosophy will be coming from all sides so I might as well cover ground already trodden. If Chris Birchall is still struggling to get past "Forged from the love of liberty", so what? He didn't jump on the bandwagon on November 17, but lined up with the national side when we were at the bottom of the standings in the final round of qualifying.
Where were Warner and Granado and Shakes and everyone else then? By the way, the fact that Jlloyd Samuels and Bobby Zamora have been ruled out of contention is no cause for satisfaction. They were disqualified for having represented England already, even if it wasn't at senior national level, not because the only person of any real influence in the TTFF has awakened to the realisation of how ridiculous this whole recruitment exercise is. The truth is that if a loophole could be found tomorrow morning to get them in, someone would be instantly faxing them the words to the National Anthem along with instructions on how to eat a piping hot doubles without letting the sauce leak onto their fingers.
Another misconception. None of the players to have represented the country from the start of the qualifying campaign two years ago to November 16 last year has a divine right to a place on the plane to Germany. If there is someone better or in better form by the May deadline from here at home, then he merits selection. If there is someone somewhere abroad, who has represented the country at any level or was always willing to play for Trinidad and Tobago if given the chance, then he should be picked.
But don't tell me I have to stomach someone who is just trying to jump on the bandwagon. I don't blame those players really. In the world that we live in, they are only doing what they see to be in their best interests. However, someone in authority has to stand up and say that this potentially wonderful World Cup experience will be soured by this unseemly exercise.
Someone should, but no one will. So then, whose spot will Anthony Warner take? Clayton Ince, whose brilliant work saved us from humiliation in the early rounds? Shaka Hislop, a real team man and an exemplar in more ways than one? Or Kelvin Jack, who time and again in the final stages of qualification, even down to the final minute in Manama, turned what seemed an impossible dream into an ecstatic reality?
You are in favour of it? Okay, you choose.