How Brazilians react to their humiliating world cup exit
What started as a joy for the tens of thousands of Brazilian fans at the Estacio Meniero in Belo Horinzonte ended with shock, disbelieve and sadness as they witnessed their country’s worst ever defeat in the World Cup on Tuesday 8 July. (Photo: A Brazilian soccer fan cries as she watches her team get beat during a live telecast of the game)
The fans dressed in their national colours with lot of them wearing the Brazilian national team jersey were in happy mood before the kick-off of 2014 World cup first semi-final game between their darling team and Germany in their own soil.
They were very noisy singing victory songs and chanting the names of their players hoping that it would spur them to a win that would see them qualify for the final.
But it turned out to be a nightmare at the end as the fans bowed down their heads in shame, some held their head with their hands in disbelieve and others were in tears after their 7-1 humiliating defeat by Germany to exit the tournament in an embarrassing fashion.
Fans of Brazil react during the semi-final match at the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte
The score-line is the highest in a semi-final match of the World Cup. Everything happened so fast and it was like the fans in the stadium and world -wide television audience was watching a movie acted by the German players.
The goals came from the boots of Muller, Kroos, Khedira and Klose whose goal broke the world cup scoring record as his now the all-time highest goal scorer in the tournament with 16 goals surpassing Brazil’s Ronaldo. Substitute Schurrle added two more goals in the second half.
Oscar got Brazil’s only goal in the final minute of regular time but was not worth celebrating because it meant nothing for his team. Muller’s goal took his tally in the ongoing world cup to five goals.
The loss marked Brazil worst ever defeat in the history of the world cup, their first competitive home defeat in 39 years.
And it ended the hopes of the five-time champions to play in the final on own soil on Sunday and also denied them the opportunity from playing at the iconic refurbished Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro for the first time in the 2014 World Cup.
Brazil played the match without their suspended skipper Thiago Silver and superstar Neymar who was ruled out due to back injury after being kneed by Colombian defender Juan Zuniga during their 2-1 quarter-final win over their South American counterpart last Friday.
Some of the fans have described their defeat as their lowest point in their football history and have attributed their defeat to the absence of Neymar. Others also blamed Coach Filipe Scolari.
Camila Nunez a female banker based in Belo Horinzonte said: “Neymar is our best player and whenever he’s on the pitch the opponents concentrate on him and that allows other players to play freely.
But the team can’t do anything without him, so we had lost the game before it even started.”
Lucas Silver a male student who travelled to Belo Horinzonte from Rio de Janiero said: “Our coach is to blame for our defeat, his team didn’t play well and he should take responsibility and resign.”
These two views reflect the opinions of many fans I had a chat with immediately after the game.
Coach Scolari told journalists during the post-match press conference that he took full responsibility of their humiliating defeat.
“I take full responsibility of the defeat as I’m the person who decided the line-up, the tactics. It was my choice.”
The former Portugal and Chelsea manager added: “I will be remembered as the coach to lose 7-1 but I knew that risk when I took the job,”
The result is catastrophic. My message for the Brazilian people is please excuse us for this performance.”
Scolari who won the World Cup in 2002 for Brazil as coach disagrees that they lost because of Neymar’s absence.
He said: “Let’s not try to find an excuse in Neymar. In fact the problem was with the defense.”
The captain of the Brazilian team on the day David Luiz who like other players were in tears after the final whistle has apologised to their fans for the defeat.
Brazil who have now failed to win the world cup on own soil twice, the first in 1950, will now play in the third-place play-off match on Saturday in Brasilia against the loser of the Argentina versus Netherlands semi-final match on Wednesday.
By Mohamed Fajah Barrie in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
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