The Confederations Cup is a tournament held every four years in advance of the World Cup. Eight teams are invited -- the winners of the six FIFA regions (Egypt representing Africa, Iraq representing Asia, Spain representing Europe, New Zealand representing Oceania, the United States representing North America and Brazil representing South America) along with the winner of the last World Cup (Italy) and the host country (South Africa).
And South Africa is extremely excited about the event, even if many around the world aren't dropping everything to watch the games.
While previous competitions may have been greeted with apathy by local fans, the same cannot be said of South Africa's devoted football supporters.
"The best thing is that we're going to see lots of people coming to South Africa and we're going to gain in lots of areas, particularly business," says Lebo, one of South Africa's many female fans. "Bafana Bafana are going to do well but I'm also thrilled about seeing the likes of Spain and Brazil."
In the grand scheme of things, it isn't a big idea except that it gives the best teams from each region a chance to play competitive games against each other.
Oh, and the United States have an absurdly hard task ahead of them just to make it to the second round -- they have to play Italy, Brazil and Egypt in their opening group.
*One weird thing about the friendly: New Zealand, nicknamed the "All Whites" because their as a response to the nickname "All Blacks" that their rugby brethren are known by (because of their uniforms), were wearing black. Itally, known as the Azzurri because of their blue uniforms, were wearing white.
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