Such sweet agony.
The shrieks of joy after the first goal, and then the second. The growing belief that the crazy, one-in-a-million scenario would play out, that South Africa, the genial host, was against all odds headed for the knockout stages of the 2010 World Cup.
Up 1-0 on France, then 2-0, in a match played in Bloemfontein, and watched in every corner of this country. The French down to 10 men, and rotting from the inside, a once great side in open revolt against its coach.
If South Africa could win 4-0 and Uruguay beat Mexico 1-0, that would do it.
Two more goals. Two more goals, and they'd be through.
"I never thought it would be like this. I thought we were going down for sure," said Mapula Digwalmaje, taking in the match at an outdoor fan park in Soweto as part of a crowd of 20,000, dressed in the full Bafana Bafana gear and blowing a vuvuzela in sync with her 11-year-old son Marang.
"We are elated," she said. "Probably we will win this one and go through to the round of 16 and then the quarter-finals. It's a beautiful game today. France is going home today."
Then, what has indeed been a beautiful ride for this country, a crazy, wonderful, childlike dream, came crashing down, as reason always suggested it would.
France scored. South Africa could score no more. It finished as a historic 2-1 victory over one of the world's soccer powers, and the end of this country's World Cup aspirations.
The question is: What happens to the party now?
The cold hard truth is that this was always in the cards, and those who followed Bafana Bafana most closely understood that best of all. Though they qualified for the World Cup in 1998 and again in 2002, South African soccer had been in a long decline, to the point that the national team had become a bit of a laughing stock, especially compared to the Springboks rugby side that is consistently at or near the top of its sport.
Ranked 83rd in the world going into the tournament, the South African soccer team really had only precedent on its side; no other host team in World Cup history had failed to advance beyond the group stage.
Precedent and hope, which built during a stretch of 12 friendly matches without a loss preceding the tournament, then exploded in every part of this country, in every community, among every race, when Siphiwe Tshabalala scored the first goal of the opening match, against Mexico at Johannesburg's monumental Soccer City stadium, a glorious thing to behold, a moment of pure joy.
It wasn't just about the soccer. It was a country that has spent the last two years listening almost exclusively to bad news - about the economic slowdown and political corruption and President Jacob Zuma's sexual exploits, about senseless crime and violent death and mounting tension between the races - happily suspending disbelief and rallying as one round Bafana Bafana. The Rainbow Nation, all dressed up, wearing the colours, honking vuvuzelas, absolutely looking the part.
With Nelson Mandela silent, mourning the death of his great-granddaughter in a traffic accident on the night of the opening match, it was left to Archbishop Desmond Tutu to put the phenomenon into a larger perspective.
"Win or lose, in many respects, we have already won the World Cup," he said in an interview with the Cape Times on Monday. "Bafana Bafana have reminded us who we are. They have reminded us that we are South African, that we are fantastic. Something extraordinary has happened in our country. It is more than we had even at the release of Nelson Mandela, even in 1994, even the rugby World Cup."
Bafana Bafana were hailed as heroes following what finished as a 1-1 draw with Mexico. Expectations went crazy high. They would advance at least to the semi-finals. They would win it all. Maybe the dour soccer experts felt otherwise, but who cared what they thought, and who didn't want to be swept away?
Then they lost 0-3 to Uruguay, which made their progression past the preliminary round nearly impossible, and were hammered mercilessly in advance of the final match against France. The country was broken-hearted and angry. Individual players were singled out for their lacklustre performance, for their selfishness. Even the African National Congress Youth League, bastion of the controversial firebrand Julius Malema (who has remained remarkably silent during this World Cup), decided it needed to weigh in. "We believe that the captain of Bafana Bafana, Aaron Mokoena, sometimes makes costly mistakes, which the team and the country cannot afford in a do-or-die soccer encounter," its spokesman said.
The Brazilian coach of the squad, Carlos Alberto Parreira, hailed as a genius after the opening match, was derided as overpaid and overrated and a lackey for greedy player agents, who were alleged to be dictating the lineup in order to showcase clients for European clubs.
The suggestions of scandal didn't get quite the same play as the intrigues surrounding the French and English squads over the past few days, but here they were front-page news.
Still, though, there were pockets of belief, and still, after those first two goals, a growing faith that the miraculous was possible.
Now there's the coming back to earth, with half a World Cup still to play, with the mood of the host country a little tough to gauge.
In Soweto, a few people started trickling out of the fan park in the match's final minutes, understanding the cause was lost. Some threw their yellow makaraba hard hats onto the ground. "Eish!" one woman said, the all-purpose South African expression of exasperation.
But still clapping at the very end, the harsh realities of the dream's end already having settled in, was true fan Tsholo Mopeli.
"We are still fully behind them," he said. "We are going to stay strong behind them."
With a report from Erin Conway-Smith in Soweto