CHRISTIAN CHARISIUS
It is a steamy, smoggy afternoon here where Brazil and Portugal will play in what was the most anticipated match of the group stages back when the draw was announced.
There's not quite as much at stake as their might have been - Portugal"s 7-1 thumping of North Korea gave them an essentially insurmountable goal differential over Ivory Coast, so they can in all probability lose today and still advance as the second team from Group G, or they can win the group by beating Brazil.
Problem is, it's impossible to know whether it's best to be first or second, because Group H, which is the crossover, won't be decided until tonight, and there all kinds of things are possible.
Spain could win the group, they could finish second - or they could be out of the tournament tonight, following Italy and France in the ignominious exit department.
The other contenders, Switzerland and Chile, are no slouches, but no one wants to draw the reigning European champions in the group of sixteen. So let's assume that means both sides will be playing for the victory and then hoping for the best, which would be a treat for all involved. Brazil is minus Kaka, suspended because of the ridiculous red card he received against Ivory Coast, and Elano, who hurt his ankle in that match, the result of a nasty tackle.
Just got today's line ups - no Deco for Portugal, and for Brazil no Elano and of course no Kaka.Worth nothing is the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo is carrying a yellow card, which means that if he gets another today, he would be suspended if Portugal does indeed go on to the round of sixteen.
And yes, the streets are filled with pockets of slinky, sambaing Brazilian women - and many much-less-slinky Brazilian men.
Before we get down to business, two favourite facts about this place:
The stadium is named for Moses Mabhiba, the former General Secretary of the South African Communist Party, and onetime former commander of the armed wing of the African National Congress. He suffered a stroke while on a party mission to Havana in 1985, and died in 1986.
That would make this place pretty much unique on this side of what was once the Iron Curtain, though in a South African political context (Nelson Mandela was also involved with both organizations) it simply acknowledges the family tree of the ruling party here.
Better than selling naming rights to Enron, or Merrill Lynch, or BP…and the rough equivalent of the people of Saskatchewan deciding to name the proposed new Roughriders' stadium The Tommy Douglas Dome, which wouldn't be the worst idea.
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Anyone who follows English football knows about The Kop, the name given to stands in several stadiums, most notably Anfield, home Liverpool, where the huge single-tiered terrace and its singing supporters are the club's trademark.
The name originates with the Battle of Spion Kop, fought not too far from here on January 24, 1900, when British forces made the mistake of taking what they believed was a lightly guarded hill - or "kop" - only to find themselves sitting ducks for the Boer army and its heavy guns, which surrounded them and cut them to pieces.
"Corpses lied here and there", wrote war correspondent Winston Churchill. "Many of the wounds were of a horrible nature. The splinters and fragments of the shells had torn and mutilated them. The shallow trenches were choked with dead or wounded."
Four years later, it was reporter with a poetic imagination who noted the resemblance between what was then a large earthen embankment where supporters stood at Arsenal's Manor Ground and the site of what had become a legendary act of bravery against impossible odds.
In 1928, the famous stand at Anfield was officially named the "Spion Kop" - which soon enough was shortened to the "Kop".