Training, blood, sweat, tears, and a golden trophy to win. The world's footballers have been battling it out on pitches across South Africa to take home the World Cup, and behind the scenes is a network of people making sure their national players are in the best condition to play.
Wolfgang Wirthmann, managing director at HRG Sports Europe, is one of these. He has been managing the German football team's travel since 1978, and saw the team win the trophy in 1990.
His job is to ensure the players are in the right place, at the right time, ready to play, and there's more involved than you might think.
"It's not our business at HRG to play the game, we have other tasks," says Wirthmann.
Similar to organising trips for business travellers, he says, his job is to make travel easy.
"Our task is to make people feel comfortable, that they can relax during their travelling, that they are well accommodated. Everything has to be prepared."
There are a few differences to managing business travellers, however, with the football team perhaps (although not always) ranking higher in the demand stakes.
"The teams usually stay on one floor of a hotel. They need a separate dining room, as well as massage rooms for physiotherapists, meeting rooms for team discussions, and a room for the media," explains Wirthmann.
The food is also important, with team doctors and coaches deciding what the players should eat. "The requirements they have are quite comprehensive," he adds.
HRG Sports Europe also had to organise training camp facilities, flights and car rental. For the South African World Cup, planning started more than two years in advance.
And of course, it can always go two ways. HRG must plan for a win ("the best case scenario", says Wirthmann") or a loss, with different travel requirements depending on what happens.
It's not only the football players that HRG needs to organise travel for, it's also the media, sponsors, family and friends, each with different needs.
"You always have to take care that you help each group to get the best arrangements," says Wirthmann.
The German team alone, including coaches and officials, numbers around 70, plus an entourage of some 200 more, which includes the media, sponsors, family and friends.
The media, like the footballers, have a demanding schedule, with HRG ensuring they get to where they need to be.
"When the team are out for a training seession, the media is allowed to watch the first 15 minutes of the training session live in the football stadium. We have to guarantee the transport to the training pitch and back.
"Then of course they have to visit the games and for them there is always a special programme, which means they have to stay longer.
"The German team in South Africa has between 300 and 350 members of the media accompanying them. We have implemented a press centre, where every day at noon a press conference takes place.
"What we guarantee the press is that they should not be responsible for all the logistics, so that they can really concentrate on their tasks - to write articles, conduct interviews... I know most of them really value that."
The sponsors and their guests also have activities and meetings to attend, with travel organised by HRG Sports Europe. "Event management is what we do for them," explains Wirthmann.
"Special sightseeing trip, dinners in top restaurants... it's a special mix with quite high standards."
Now, the German team are preparing for their match against Uruguay tomorrow. Their hopes of taking home the trophy may be over, after losing to Spain on Wedneday, but Germany will be hoping for third place.
The team have travelled from their home base in Johannesburg to where the match is taking place, in this case Port Elisabeth, the day before. The day after the match, says Wirthmann, they will fly home with Lufthansa.
While Germany's focus will now be on winning the match, at 8.30pm local time, the team at HRG Sports Europe must also look to the season ahead:
"When the World Cup has finished, the qualification matches for Euro 2012 in the Ukraine and Poland are starting, in September. We have some tough competitors, like Belgium.
"We have already made trips and looked for accommodation and all the other facilities that we will need.
"We cannot say now stop and relax," says Wirthmann, " the world is going on."