Many, many nations came together-38 in all- waving flags, blowing horns, wearing cultures, all in all, bringing good cheer to Tukwila for the opening ceremony held last Friday that commences the All Nations Cup, a soccer tournament round-robin, grouping style just like the World Cup format, going on now until the championship game on July 29.

All this goes on at the Starfire Sports Complex, the state-of-the-art two indoor fields, four fieldturf outdoor fields, study rooms, all everything blessing to this community.

Where's Djiboutli?

Where did that come from? Well, there's all these nations mentioned playing for this soccer title from the African Region, right-Ethiopia, Zambia, Somalia, Tanzania, Sudan, Morroco, Cameroon. Everyone's heard of them? Right? But Djiboutli? Huh? That may be where Carmen Sandiego was hiding one episode of that widely popular children's show that had culture clues telling the mostly young viewers how to find what country Carmen was in.

"It's north of Somalia," came the answer from Asad Samatar when I asked it. So, by far, the smallest country in the world, OK, besides that one everyone read about in their world geography classes-yes, Liechtenstein, is Djiboutli. It's not something you probably know, not yet anyway, but, yes, Djiboutli, is actually...

D-J-I-B-O-U-T-I , pronounced...'ji-boot-ee.' Hey, so the colorful All Nations Cup program pamphlet got it wrong. Who could blame them? It took me a short while just to find it on the globe knowing where it was supposed to be at according to Samatar.

And with such a small country like that picked on by this reporter, for the fun of it, and culture of it all, where in the world would one guess Samatar is from of all the cities in Washington State? Could it be Lynnwood? Kent? Issaquah? Seattle? Hey, that's a good percentage guess isn't it. Well, how about 'Sea-Tac. Of all the 38 countries out there, spanning from Tibet to Italy to Brazil to, of course, the USA, Samatar is local.

It's a small world afterall.

Not only that, but his friend, Ali Rashed, from nearby Renton, led Djibouti, make that the entire tournament of scorers in scoring at the 3rd annual All Nations Cup last summer.

"I had 12 goals," said Rashed. "That led all the nations."

And where did Djibouti end up finishing for such a small nation?

"We lost in the quarterfinal to Tokyo, a good team," said Rashed, and, since 'Tokyo,' is a city, not a country, all you world geography buffs out there know which country beat Rashed's.

Japan.

Japan opened up this 2006 tournament after the opening ceremony Friday night with a 1-0 win over Tibet, the same went for Mexico over Guatemala, and Somalia also handled Zambia by the one goal.

So, things are all underway. How it all started was the handing of a sharp, colorful pamphlet at the gate. It showed a wonderful, art, a soccer player doing a bicycle kick with his kicking foot blurring a flag or two, with all 38 flags there. The USA flag is way in the background of the pyramid like design of flags.

Afterall, we're no better than anyone else, just another nation under God.

On that note, let's go to the opening ceremonies speaker, Jessica Brezna, who spoke right before a wonderful native american chant, dance, deerskini-playing number from the dressed-up Muckleshoot Tribe.

"Tonight in Tukwila we will be welcoming many, many peoples with many, many tongues," she said.

These players that will play in this tournament are all local, from Washington State, and they are representing their countries. The highest level group of the tournament has a very high level of soccer being played on these beautiful soft synthetic turf fields.

Jesse Whitham, the media relations person, said, "Many have competed professionally in their home countries, so the competition can be very fierce."

The opening ceremony was only the beginning of this great event for nations to all get together and play hard soccer and shake hands afterward and really get to know each other better for the fans and themselves. This will be a popular event, be prepared to walk to get in. But as the saying goes,'All good things come to those who wait." Can I change wait to 'walk?' The lot was all full, the red sign did not lie when one was leaving the place at 9:30 at night after the opening ceremony that started at 7pm was through and the following soccer games that ended around 9:30pm.

The red background sign with block white letters read, 'Lot Full'

And Starfire, formerly Fort Dent, can put in a lot of cars. So, this event promises to be big and with many, many people from around here attending. The stadium was plum full for the ceremony and sidelines were laden with watchers. This is what soccer really should do. It's not about who is better than who and who is bringing the greatest skills to the field, and who beats who. It's about nations coming together, understanding that we are all created equal-hands, feet, legs, head, shoulders, knees, toes are on all of us. And our hearts all look the same.

On July 21-23, the round of 16 begins for the Master's Division, Women's Regional and youth games, with the opening round qualifier games already having been played last weekend, July 15-16. Then, after the round of 16, it's time for the quarterfinals and semifinals on July 25-27. Then July 29 is the championship game with the closing celebration. Full tournament passes are $28. And, the price for a day's fun is $5. Children that are 12 and under get in free, so that is nice that is one more nice thing Starfire is doing so that everyone can attend this event. Be sure to go inside and see the facility, it is a place for your kids to study and learn with all that is in it, not just outside of it in full grandeur.

The nations represented besides the African Region already mentioned are, from the Asian Region- China, Iran, Korea, Tibet, Japan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Vietnam, Turkey, from the European Region-Bosnia, Ireland, Denmark, France, Sweden, Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Italy, Great Britain, Russia, from the Americas Region-Brazil, El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, USA, Honduras, Mexico.

It's going to be a great event. And, oh, if you see the Dibouti team, go up to Samatar or Rasheed and score some points, so to speak.

Tell them, 'I know what city your from.'

They'll probably say, 'W-w-hot?'

Tell them you read the Highline Times/ Des Moines News article and you read their Djibouti part and that they said they were from a little city called, 'Kaismano.'

And, for bonus points, tell them that their main industry is 'coffee' as Rashed said, 'There are a lot of coffee factories."

Wake up to some real fun, area, don't miss this cultural extravaganza that will get you off the couch, away from the internet, into the fresh air for something that will have some things for everyone.

Thanks for the event goes to many sponsors, including Boeing, the Seattle Weekly, the Northwest Asian Weekly, Seattle P.I., and a dozen other names that helped bring all these faces all together.