"I ain't able with Brazil nah. Ronaldinho go mash we up sad."
A friend's thoughts while walking to the mosque in the relative cool, calm and blissfully quiet period before dawn yesterday needed no further elaboration. As far as he was concerned, today's draw for next year's World Cup football finals is about getting a "soft" group and scrapping gamely to get into the second round, not dying a glorious death at the feet of the world champions.
It still seems to be a dream. To actually be contemplating what would be the most favourable draw for Trinidad and Tobago at the group stage in Germany is almost within the realms of the ridiculously fanciful. But of course those discussions have been raging since the final whistle in Manama just over three weeks ago sparked such amazing nationwide celebrations.
Some of that debate is typical Trini bravado, like hoping to actually meet the Brazilians in the first round so that Leo Beenhakker can properly size them up to ensure that we will be ready for them in the rematch in the final on July 9.
Others, choosing to be much more pragmatic, are looking along the lines of a grouping headed by Mexico (whom we just defeated) and including one of the African newcomers like Angola and one of the least reputable European sides like the Ukraine.
For both, this first-ever appearance on the biggest stage in world sport-or world anything for that matter-is about going all the way, or at least close enough to all the way so as to leave an indelible mark on the tournament.
Still another segment of the population, blending sky-high ambition with down-to-earth reality, is saying let's take on the best right now and if we have to go down in the first round, let us go down in a blaze of glory by at least giving some of the powerhouses of the game a real fright, if only temporarily.
For this bunch, and I have to admit I am one of them, playing in the World Cup finals is not about thuggish, defence-dominated football and scrambling the only goal of a forgettable encounter. It is about showing the flair and style that is distinctive of this twin-island state in so many other aspects of life.
Yes, there must be much more of the admirable defensive discipline that has taken us where no national team has gone before, but to spend most of the three group games in your own half will not win too many admirers.
In Trinidad and Tobago's only other world football finals appearance at the under-19 tournament in Portugal in 1991-when Dwight Yorke was also the captain-we went out after three first-round defeats without even the minor consolation of scoring a goal.
Nobody wants to be hammered 10-1, but wouldn't it be something to see the boys of the red, white and black taking on teams that really play football like it should be played, like Brazil, Portugal and Ghana?
Just a thought, even if it sounds like a recipe for humiliation.
It is all speculation, of course, but how wonderful it is to ponder on something that could actually become a reality-whichever way you prefer-in a few hours' time, rather than just generating a lot of hot air over something that did not seem possible seven months ago, when the national team lay at the foot of the final-round qualifying group with one point from three games.
Not being a gambler, I can't say for sure, but has anyone here ever anticipated a draw as eagerly as the one taking place in Leipzig this afternoon?
It may not elicit the same roar as when Dennis Lawrence headed in the decisive goal against Bahrain, but we will all be in the collective cheering section when the name "Trinidad and Tobago" is pulled from Pot Four.
Whether it is what we would like to consider as an easy group, a date with Brazil, or the opening game against the hosts on June 9, this is a time of real national pride, yet another occasion for the deaf, dumb and blind people of influence to awake from their stupor and recognise what sport can do for the reformation of this nation.
This is indeed a good Friday, as all Fridays are actually. Even if we have to wait for almost an hour from the start of the ceremony while the administrators talk, the singers sing, the dancers dance and the models strut, a few more minutes for a moment that many of us have waited a lifetime for-and actually believed would never come-is hardly something to complain about.
The World Cup draw will underscore how much this biggest of global events is surrounded by a lot of pomp and circumstance, a lot of patting and preening and putting on a good show. But, as with the tournament itself, hardly anyone remembers the ostentatious formalities that precede the main event.
Just as the opening ceremony in six months' time will be forgotten as soon as the whistle blows for the kick-off, so too will the 50 minutes of fluff be cast aside the moment Pele sticks his hand in the first pot at around 4.20 p.m.
Anxiety, yes. Expectation, definitely. But how wonderful it is for this tiny country we call home to be part of the greatest celebration of the beautiful game.