No matter what happens this week, the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte has forever been typecast.
For it was there that Brazil suffered what has been labelled the most shameful night in the country’s sporting history.
On Thursday Brazil returns to the scene of the crime for the first time since that fateful July evening when its World Cup 2014 hopes were destroyed by a rampant Germany which obliterated it 7-1.
But as goalkeeping coach Taffarel suggested this week, the Selecao must cast that night from its collective memory with great rival Argentina coming to town.
So perhaps they can, instead, remember some of the happier times. And it was on that very plot of earth that the last Brazilian hat trick was netted against the ‘hermanos’.
In 2004, Carlos Alberto Parreira’s arrived in Belo Horizonte for World Cup qualifier in third place in the Conmebol standings, with Argentina topping the pile.
Both teams were unbeaten after five rounds of action. And it was a night when a hometown hero stepped forward. Rio native Ronaldo has made his professional debut with Mineirao tenants Cruzeiro.
It was to be a remarkable evening for Ronaldo, as he won and scored a trio of penalties.The 27-year-old was, by then, carrying a few extra pounds as a result of a thyroid condition for which he was unable to take medication due to FIFA’s list of banned substances.
But he was still quicker than most on the field. His touch, movement, technique and ruthlessness in front of goal were as sharp as ever.
Coupled with his brute strength and close control, he drew first blood by skipping past Facundo Quiroga and bursting into the box before drawing a foul from a sprawling Gabriel Heinze.
Ronaldo slotted into the corner and peeled away in celebration, only for referee Oscar Ruiz to order him to take it again after Luis Fabiano encroached. Ronaldo again sent Pablo Cavallero the wrong way, this time slotting his kick coolly down the middle.
Argentina simply couldn’t handle Ronaldo (or Ronaldinho, as he was still known locally at the time), as he repeatedly slalomed through its backline.
And it was another of his trademark runs that brought Brazil’s second. Picking up the ball just inside his own half, he burst past one and skipped around a second before a desperate tackle from Javier Mascherano saw Ruiz point to the spot once again.
Cavallero went one way, the ball went the other and Brazil were 2-0 up with less than 25 minutes remaining.
Juan Pablo Sorin, something of a local hero himself after a couple of years with Cruzeiro, pulled one back, but three minutes into stoppage time, Ronaldo completed a remarkable hat trick.
Latching onto a wonderful-spotted, if slightly over-hit, through-ball from the majestic Alex de Souza, this time Ronaldo beat Cavallero himself to the ball before being hauled down.
At the fourth time of asking, Cavallero did go the right way, but Ronaldo’s kick was too close to the centre and the Argentine dived past it.
The victory saw Brazil knock Argentina off top slot ahead of a first-place finish that would confirm its presence in Germany