All suddenly evaporated, all vanished all gone, all swept away by the incredible footwork the surprising charisma the enduring persistence of the Koreans, the Senegelese and other lesser southern lights

I chuckle as I observe racist British commentators on Canadian television choking, swallowing their dismissive pronouncements on Asian and African football that they so freely dished out only hours ago.

The cinderelas have refused to go home
The side show acts have grabbed centre stage
The six o'clock news is dominated by the revelry in seoul, kwangju and pyongyang

No Italians flags this evening on st laurent and other parts of downtown montreal no blaring car horns along yonge street and st. clair west in toronto but there is a party happening all night in Korea town near the christie subway and the African drums will not be silenced in cote des neiges, notre dame des grace eglinton west, don mills and north york

Tonight we hear the clash and bong of the korean drums
Tonight we dance to the pulsating rythms of the djembe and tam tams and sing along to the melodies of ismael lo, baaba maal and yousour ndour
Tonight we celebrate the coming of age of african football
Tonight we cheer the wake up call from Asian soccer
Tonight we thumb our noses at the colonial powers who have poached so much of Africa's and Asia's talent
tonight we howl on them to bring it on.....

The one true champion we all hold in awe is still in the race.
So let's not get ahead of ourselves Brazil composed of so much of africa and aboriginal turtle island and of working class hungry youth from the teeming favelas
Brazil is the one to beat ronaldo, rivaldo roberto carlos dunga and all the other dazzling talents in the famous yellow make us relive the glories of the famous peles and tostaos

Suddenly for me, the world cup has become even more interesting