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Port Elizabeth - Fans lined up for three hours at a suburban shopping mall in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday to buy the most sought-after ticket in town: Entry to Friday's blockbuster World Cup quarter-final between favourites Brazil and the Netherlands.
Officials are expecting the first-ever sellout at the 42 286-seat Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium after empty seats at all six previous matches at the new stadium.
Tickets went on sale on Tuesday in four categories from R525 to R2 100.
Deenish Nadill of Port Elizabeth was the first in line, waiting outside the mall doors since early morning.
He says he's become a fan of the Dutch "because I like their style of football".
The high-profile teams, one a five-time champion and the other a two-time runner-up, advanced to the quarterfinals on Monday when Brazil defeated Chile 3-0 and the Dutch beat Slovakia 2-1.
Stadium venue manager Archie Charalambous said there were several thousand tickets left by midmorning but that he expected the rest to be "snapped up" by the end of the day.
The ticket office had extra staff on duty for the expected rush.
"Let's face it, this quarter-final is like a final," Charalambous said.
'Plenty of support'
Nadia Botha and her partner, Dutch exchange student Dominique Asselman, were second in the queue.
"I'm South African but I'll be supporting the Dutch," Botha said. "They will have plenty of support here from a local Dutch organisation that brings in students from the Netherlands."
Guga Ferreira, a 24-year-old from Brazil who lives in Port Elizabeth, was further back in the line but hoped to get good tickets.
"I actually wasn't clued up on which teams could come here," Ferreira said. "I only saw it about two days ago and I said 'wow, I've got to come and get some tickets'."
The stadium's biggest World Cup crowd thus far was 38 295 for Serbia's win over Germany in a group game. There were 12 000 empty seats for Uruguay's 2-1 second-round win over South Korea.
Officials are expecting the first-ever sellout at the 42 286-seat Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium after empty seats at all six previous matches at the new stadium.
Tickets went on sale on Tuesday in four categories from R525 to R2 100.
Deenish Nadill of Port Elizabeth was the first in line, waiting outside the mall doors since early morning.
He says he's become a fan of the Dutch "because I like their style of football".
The high-profile teams, one a five-time champion and the other a two-time runner-up, advanced to the quarterfinals on Monday when Brazil defeated Chile 3-0 and the Dutch beat Slovakia 2-1.
Stadium venue manager Archie Charalambous said there were several thousand tickets left by midmorning but that he expected the rest to be "snapped up" by the end of the day.
The ticket office had extra staff on duty for the expected rush.
"Let's face it, this quarter-final is like a final," Charalambous said.
'Plenty of support'
Nadia Botha and her partner, Dutch exchange student Dominique Asselman, were second in the queue.
"I'm South African but I'll be supporting the Dutch," Botha said. "They will have plenty of support here from a local Dutch organisation that brings in students from the Netherlands."
Guga Ferreira, a 24-year-old from Brazil who lives in Port Elizabeth, was further back in the line but hoped to get good tickets.
"I actually wasn't clued up on which teams could come here," Ferreira said. "I only saw it about two days ago and I said 'wow, I've got to come and get some tickets'."
The stadium's biggest World Cup crowd thus far was 38 295 for Serbia's win over Germany in a group game. There were 12 000 empty seats for Uruguay's 2-1 second-round win over South Korea.
