'Gang leaders are soccer lovers' - Haiti play with hope for peace

The arrival of then world champions Brazil for an exhibition match in conflict-torn Haiti brought the capital Port-au-Prince to a standstill in 2004.

"Are you sure the Brazilians are playing in Haiti? It sounds like the Brazilians are at home," Haitian journalist Pierre Richard Midy remembers his foreign friends asking him.

It looked like it too. Waving Brazilian flags and wearing yellow and green shirts and face paint, thousands of locals lined the streets and climbed the trees for a better view of their heroes including Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Roberto Carlos.

With Haiti's sole men's World Cup appearance having been in 1974, fans had long turned to Brazil as their team to support on the biggest stage. Their passion has further increased in the past couple of decades through Brazil's key roles in supporting peacekeeping, humanitarian aid and migration.

Haiti lost the match 6-0, but the United Nations (UN)-organised friendly was about so much more in a Caribbean island nation dominated by gang warfare. Midy recalls "an atmosphere of peace" and that gangs seemed "ready to turn the page and cease fire for two days".

This year Haitians are preparing for the rare chance to not only support their own team at the World Cup, but also play against Brazil again.

Streets have been cleaned and Haitian flags hung with pride, while fans are finding creative ways to watch the action in a country where there is a chronic electricity shortage.

Largely in the hands of gangs and grappling with a humanitarian crisis deepened by natural disasters, such as the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 100,000 people, Haiti is so dangerous that the national team have not played a home match for five years.