Commentary - This is the day

Curtis Myrie, Contributor

THIS is the day. Sunday, September 2 - a day we're all driven by the same dreams.

Today we share one common goal - that of victory for us when we host Mexico at 4:00 this afternoon at the National Stadium, at 'our office'; a World Cup football qualifier on in earnest.

We have not been thinking about anything else for weeks. We are blinkered--pulse and passion galloping along one straight course. Emotions have been running high and from every quarter there is a word, often quite charged, on how we'll prevail.

We'll be gladiators--guarding the gate. We're beating back the Mexican bull, we're taming el toro--we're matadors, we're fighting Maroons. There'll be no retreat, no surrender. Ours is a David-like defiance against this groping Goliath.

This match, then, is more than just game - and it has been for quite some time because of all that's socially defined.

When we think about today there is a sense of pride and worth on how we take the stands--men and women in uniform, an army clad in gold, rising, moving to the same beat, a reggae rhythm completely our own. One stadium, we're locked arm in arm, notwithstanding the different priced seats. Everybody is everywhere. All sections as one country, one camp.

You could get high on the camaraderie. It's how you want to feel about Jamaica every single day. This is the spirit to help us heal.

We're going to be there as the gates open at 11:00 this morning. It's kick off time for the grand reggae boyz party, a revelry taking us right up to match time - right through and after the game whatever the score-line. The music will be throbbing, we'll be chanting, rocking. It's a sight for the whole world to see.

This is our country. This is being together, like the lines from the recorded 'we are the reggae boyz' jingle-- 'the field, the stands, we'll play as one - same reggae team, same dream.'

And how we stand, to a man, led by Ian Andrews, for the singing of the national anthem is a picture too etched indelibly on the mind. We're country that's one chorus; and with flags waving, draping ourselves in them as well, our renewed pride in our national symbols is almost fairytale.

This makes good children stories you tell yourself, in kindergarten colouring books and right throughout their years. This spirit we have for football, this revitalizing sense of nationalism, is song and nursery rhyme for our young.

It's something to pass on to them in this manner and fashion--and it's interesting hearing their views about the game. Called up a group of them, family members among them, from ages 5 -9, and I was left tickled from ear to ear.

Sasha is a 6-year old live wire. 'Wi no fraid a dem, wi badder dan dem--' I had every intention of playing devil's advocate so I kept on pressing about how they were once the unbeatable in the region. Ricky, 8, who had been keeping fairly quite all along kept a straight face in striking from the penalty spot. 'That was then Uncle Curtis," he said, "this is now," and they made faces at me while they sang and swayed to this chorus line of the recorded reggae song of the same name - all teasing me.

They were joining the front line, all pluck and ready themselves to lead. We'll stand with our children, now readily relaying the same pass of assurance back to us. This is really the day. We're one family taking the field.

Curtis Myrie is a sports journalist and marketer, specializing in promotional campaigns, advertising, television production and publications.

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