But McCullum boiled it down succinctly. One of these teams will tonight have advanced to their first World Cup final; the other will be left to poke through the ashes.
Which one will be which? It's too close to call.
New Zealand are seven-from-seven and, setting aside the odd little wobble, rolling along pretty comfortably. South Africa have overcome group defeats to India and Pakistan and look sharp.
Martin Guptill added the wow factor with his unbeaten double century in the quarter-final against the West Indies; other batsmen are playing their parts.
Trent Boult needs two wickets to overtake Geoff Allott's 1999 record of 20 in a campaign. Add in Tim Southee's skills and Dan Vettori's ability to stifle the opposition run rates and New Zealand have not needed much else from their bowling group.
They will expect more will be needed today, should South Africa's batting muscle find its bearings on the oddly shaped arena.
Food for thought for the skippers: teams batting first have won 27, and lost 39, of 66 ODIs on Eden Park to produce a victory. And don't get fooled that the ground, with a 45m boundary at one end, will automatically translate to a runfest.
Australia and New Zealand managed 303 between them, and 19 wickets, in a fabulous, frenzied group game last month. Assume 300-plus is a shoo-in at your peril, partly because the respective bowling attacks, and fielding groups, are among the best in the business and partly because the numbers don't bear it out.
South Africa's only dilemma appears to be Vernon Philander or Kyle Abbott as the third seamer. Abbott is good; Philander is top class, and a better batsman.
AB de Villiers sidestepped whether this was the biggest game of his life. Quite reasonably, he pointed out there's been a few.
But in terms of directly relating to finally winning the Cup, a subject which does draw an emotional response, it has to be up there.
He insisted there's no revenge in his mind for the events at Dhaka four years ago when New Zealand won a fractious quarter-final.
"The most important day is tomorrow," he said.
Both skippers veered away from any repeats of the Dhaka argy-bargy today and McCullum called the overused choker term used to describe South Africa's Cup record as "quite inappropriate".
"We had a bit of a stoush but both have grown up immensely in that time. Verbals is not how we want to play the game. We're not good enough to have that as our focus."
Both teams will be determined to win the key battles - the South African quicks against New Zealand's top order, and vice versa; how the batting groups will tackle Imran Tahir and Vettori. Both have 15 cheap wickets with distinctly different, but equally effective methods.
"The team that handles the crunch situations the best will come out on top," McCullum said.
De Villiers, however, is adamant he knows the outcome, provided his players are on their game.
"I believe if we play to our full potential no one is going to stop us in this tournament."
McCullum just wants his team to be true to themselves and the ways which have got them, thrillingly, this far.
"We have been playing a pretty exciting brand of cricket. Just because it's a pressure game shouldn't change that. It's our greatest chance of success. For us to win crunch games we need to remain true to that."
Bottom line, for both teams today is about one thing: Carpe diem. Seize the day.
5 memorable NZ ODI moments...
1 1992 semifinal
New Zealand were tipped to march on to the final by beating Pakistan at Eden Park. They had lost to them in their final pool game - their only defeat to that point - but, batting first, 262 seemed enough. New Zealand, even without their injured captain and talisman Martin Crowe, were on track until relative newcomer Inzamam-ul-Haq took guard, and clouted 60 off 36 balls, ripping the game away.
2 Underarm
The most notorious game in New Zealand-Australia history. New Zealand needed six to tie the game at the cavernous Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1981. Australian captain Greg Chappell took no chances, ordering brother Trevor to roll it underarm to batsman Brian McKechnie. Cue two fingers to the younger Chappell by All Black hero McKechnie and century-making non-striker Bruce Edgar. "Don't do it, mate," Aussie wicketkeeper Rod Marsh is said to have called to his skipper. New Zealand's Prime Minister suggested yellow was an appropriate colour for Australia to wear. In the commentary box, Bill Lawry called it "a little bit disappointing". Go Bill.
3 Lawn bowl
One year later, Australia pitched up at Eden Park, a full house in a frenzy. New Zealand made 240 for six and when Chappell strode on to the ground early in Australia's reply, a wag from the old terraces, now the eastern stand, stepped out and rolled a lawn bowl out to the middle. Jeremy Coney rolled it back. Out it came a second time and Gary Troup over-armed it back to the boundary. Chappell saw the humorous side and, unperturbed, made 108 off 92 balls - but New Zealand won by 46 runs.
4 First World Cup semifinal
In here because it was the first of seven trips to the semifinals. It was The Oval, June 1975 and the first of these new fandangled things called the World Cup. Eight teams, 60-over games, and all over in a blink. New Zealand met the West Indies and were rolled for 158, of which Geoff Howarth's 51 off 93 balls, and 36 from captain Glenn Turner in 74 balls, were the only notable contributions. The West Indies knocked the runs off with 19.5 overs to spare. Alvin Kallicharan hit 72, Gordon Greenidge 55, but the adventure was off and running.
5 ICC glory
Okay, it was in Kenya and was called the ICC Knockout - a kind of Champions Trophy forerunner - and in the final New Zealand beat India by four wickets, at the Nairobi Gymkhana ground. So, it was a bit out of sight, but still the first, and only, ICC title won by New Zealand's men. India made a competitive 264, on the back of a Sourav Ganguly century, but Chris Cairns replied with 102 not out, Chris Harris hit 46 and New Zealand won with two balls to spare.
New Zealand v South Africa
Eden Park, 2pm today
Umpires: Ian Gould (England) and Rod Tucker (Australia)
New Zealand: (probable) Brendon McCullum (c), Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi, Dan Vettori, Tim Southee, Matt Henry, Trent Boult.
South Africa:
AB de Villiers (c), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, Rilee Rossouw, David Miller, JP Duminy, Vernon Philander/Kyle Abbott, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir.
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