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Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Brasil Shell Shocked By World Cup Horror Show!


Last updated: July 9, 2014 12:27 am

Brazil shell-shocked by World Cup horror show

It’s hard to think of a bigger humiliation in sporting history than Brazil 1 Germany 7. Football teams have lost 7-1 before, but never the self-proclaimed “country of football”, winner of five World Cups, host and bookmakers’ favourite for this tournament, playing in a semifinal.
Nate Silver, the US statistician, said that based on the teams’ pre-match rankings this was the most unexpected scoreline in the World Cup’s history.

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Symbolically, it was a fitting end to Brazil’s long years of economic boom. But in sporting terms, it was something more specific: the end of Brazil’s footballing tradition. The phrase jogo bonito, or “beautiful game”, can now be ditched along with clichés about “samba football”. Brazilians stopped offering feints, dribbles and beautiful goals long ago. They must now surely realise their country needs to adopt a new, faster-passing, more European, more German style.
The crowd in Belo Horizonte and millions across Brazil – this may prove the largest television audience in Brazilian history – watched in disbelief. Some fans left the stadium at half-time, disgusted by a performance that will mark Brazil’s footballing psyche for ever.
Brazilian TV showed fans weeping and even collapsing as Germany scored five unanswered goals in 30 first-half minutes. Miroslav Klose’s 16th World Cup goal for Germany – a record for the tournament – passed almost unnoticed. Brazilian players humiliated themselves further in the second half by diving ostentatiously in the hope of penalties.
Paulo Marujo, a fan watching from São Paulo, said: “I never imagined Brazil would not make it to the final. Now I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Brazilian football needs to start again too, ideally led by German coaches
But many Paulistas watching in city-centre bars were laughing, as were pharmacy workers crowded around a TV set in their shop on the central Avenida Paulista. Many Brazilians had doubted their team all along. TheSeleção reached the semi-final after kicking Colombia’s playmaker James Rodriguez throughout the quarter-final. In the same violent match Brazil lost their captain, Thiago Silva, to suspension, and their talisman, Neymar, to a broken back.
Neymar was the spectre at the German feast. He is Brazil’s last undisputed purveyor of jogo bonito – but one man is a thin foundation for a tradition. Most of Brazil’s players in recent World Cups have played an ugly, slow, defensive game in the service of one or two geniuses, such as Romario, Ronaldo or Neymar.
In 2004, after German football hit a low, coaches Jürgen Klinsmann and Joachim Löw led a reinvention of national tradition. The result was the “beautiful game” of cerebral fast-passing football that Germany played on Tuesday, applauded at the end by the Brazilian crowd.
Brazilian football needs to start again too, ideally led by German coaches.
Afterwards Brazil’s players wept on the field. President Dilma Rousseff must feel distraught too, ahead of elections in October.

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A Brazil supporter reacts after Germany defeated Brazil 7-1 to advance to the finals during the World Cup semifinal soccer match between Brazil and Germany at the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Tuesday, July 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Brazil’s mistake was to react emotionally to the loss of Neymar, their talismanic star, and to commit to an all-out attacking game
She expressed her sadness over the defeat on Twitter. “But let’s not let it weaken us . . . Brazil, ‘get up, shake off the dust and get back on top’,” she wrote, quoting a well-known Samba song.
Late on Tuesday local media reported that more than 20 buses were set on fire at a depot in São Paulo, while several others were set ablaze across the city – a popular form of protest against the government over recent months.
However, there is historically no correlation between Brazil’s performance in World Cups and the incumbent’s performance in elections later that year.
Fans have held Ms Rousseff responsible for the waste, overspending but generally smooth organisation of this tournament. Responsibility for the 7-1 lies firstly with Brazil’s hapless players and their unimaginative coach Felipe Scolari, but more broadly with the country’s outdated football tradition.
Additional reporting by Samantha Pearson in São Paulo

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COMMENTS (44)

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Frayed_Knot
Brazil were terrible, Germany ruthless and efficient, but this is a freak result. Lets not forget that the same Bayern Munich side than so many of these German players play for, dismantled Barcelona in the Champions League last year only to have themselves taken apart by Real Madrid only a few months ago. 
All this over analysis is just hot air. Brazil will continue to produce great players and teams and will no doubt continue to do so, as will Germany, Argentina,  Spain etc etc.... 
It's just a freak result.
Frankly.
The South American style of football, has been bombarded back to the stone-age where it belongs.

South American football consists of physical intimidation (Brazil/Argentina esp), late tackles, high elbows, kicking other players when down and even biting, as all are designed to inflict damage or hurt their opponents. This 'win at all costs attitude' has received wide support in South America (Argentina esp),  'because this is our way and this is how we play' even in something as obscene as the Suarez biting incident. (Check press commentary/reports).

Managers that promote this type of play (Felipe Scolari) should be fired.
One great positive, countries and/or clubs that turn to managers and coaches that teach this style of play will have to start rethinking their commitments to those that pervert the 'beautiful game'. (Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Turkey, Italy,  please take this action now).

FIFA's governing body (of old men) are not concerned about the 'crap' now being served up, because this organization never does anything about anything. I.e, no concerns nor modernization of football. (50years to get electronic goal lines installed?)

They'll investigate and have hearings etc, but at the end nothing is done. Maybe they should revisit and examine and the rule-books origins. Football was designed to be played by the book. i.e, there are rules to football. Lets not allow them to continue and politicize nor corrupt our "game".

This missive is not about politics, but while we are there FIFA might investigate their own political corruption.
And please do not bury this also. (Qatar, Beckenbauer?).

Referees need to be able to aggressively referee games and need not be constantly challenged from the sidelines and by players.
I.e, Diving. Automatic 3 match penalty. Unduly trying to unfairly influence a match. No appeal allowed.
Red cards. Automatic 3 match penalty. No appeal allowed.
Physical injuries to be fully tracked and reported. (Sorting out bad apples).

Penalties: If injury results on playing field, and the injured player needs to be sidelined for attention, the player who committed this foul should also be sidelined with the injured player for as long as the incapacitated player is of the playing field or until substituted. ie, the offending club should never benefit from a penalty while the other team is down a player. This especially might limit S.American style football.

And finally, an idea. Off-side plays: Limit off-sides to 25yards from goal-line.
I.e, have a free play middle-area of 50yards. Opens up the game. Equals more goals, more speed, more excitement.
Exiled in the North
So much for Goldman Sachs' prediction of a 2-1 win for Brazil in their pre-World Cup report.  Hope that they're better on business forecasting than football!
Paul Summerville Victoria, BC
For people (like me) that only dial in to watch this sport once every for years, the explanation provided here following the pretty universal expectation that Brazil would make its way to the finals is a little like a reading analyst's reports on Blackberry after it tanked. 
Paulus4701
The Brazilian FA should contact the German, Spanish and French FA to ask, modestly, how these countries managed to reinvent themselves and be successfull (Germany late '90's, France early 90's, Spain from the Millenium onwards). 
Sesotho
Halfway through Brazil's win over Croatia, it dawned on me that this was the worst Brazilian World Cup side I'd ever seen. Since then, they've rode their luck and played dirty - a travesty of traditional Brazilian soccer values, with Neymar the honorable exception - incredibly reaching the semi-finals. Germany are really not that great; I expect them to lose to either Holland or Argentina in the final (remember how they struggled against Ghana and Algeria?): but Brazil were simply awful, many of the players lacking even basic ball skills, and the team as a whole playing an aggressive, cynical game which makes the 7-1 drubbing all the more deserved. A rethink is in order: return, ye brasileiros, to the golden virtues of 1970!
Rick F.
Hordes of drunk brazilians in this forum talking nonsense about how great they were and how many HISTORY they had. But Brazil is not the country of the future, is the country of the past.
AnderonGrejanin
BRAZIL is the greatest champion of the World Cup of all time.
Brazil: Champion (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002); vice: (1950 and 1998); third: 1938 and 1978)and fourth (1974). Been in the late 10 World Cups. is still the best.
AnderonGrejanin
O Brasil tem 5 títulos mundiais, ainda somos os líderes. Alemanha apenas teve sorte em pegar o Brasil em um momento difícil. O julgamento duro que a imprensa marrom faz por apenas um jogo não é justo. Acredito que há muito rancor, recolhido, por parte que quem já perdeu pra nós. VIVA O BRASIL *****
Brazil has 5 world titles, we are still leaders. Germany only had luck catching Brazil in a tough time.The harsh judgment that the tabloid press is for just one game is not fair. Believe there is muchbitterness, collected, by whom we have lost to us. VIVA BRAZIL *****
miamikid
This loss does not define Brazil. It's easy to throw them under the bus and to kick the dog when it's down. Although I'm disappointed at today's game let's not forget Brazil has given us decades of entertainment, beautiful futbol, and joy. The team has been a beacon of light during Brazil's worst moments. Yes, they FU today but don't we all at some point of our lives. These players are human just like the rest of us. This great team hit rock bottom today, they will regroup, and they can only go up from here. Keep your heads up Brazil.
ftuker
It will be a long and tough time before Brazilian players pull themselves together. Also the history between Brazil and Germany in World Cup  just become more complicated and unforgettable as Brazil will be thinking about "revenge" all through the next decade. Best wishes to both.
BrotherHugh
This writing style does not reflect the kind of sportsmanship that made Britain great. 
DMCR
@BrotherHugh Indeed!!!
"Symbolically, it was a fitting end to Brazil’s long years of economic boom. But in sporting terms, it was something more specific: the end of Brazil’s footballing tradition."
Paragraphs like this were an oversight of what they learned in journalism school or just some kind of (unfortunate) joke?
Rick F.
Welcome to reality Brazil, not only in football but in economics, you are not a world power by any means, you are a country plenty of social problems that must be solved urgently. Not the worse country of Earth of course, but certainly not a world power, nor the leader of Latin America either.
LUCLAX
@Rick F.  Brazil most be a pain in the neck to some people for sure that loosing the game wasn't enough satisfying on that...Still is the champions in the tournament with 5 stars !


AnderonGrejanin
@Rick F.  BRAZIL is the greatest champion of the World Cup of all time.
Brazil: Champion (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002); vice: (1950 and 1998); third: 1938 and 1978) and fourth (1974). Been in the late 10 World Cups. is still the best.
looking from afar
colombia took the air out of brazil, who won with the aid of the referee. brazil's energies were decimated from excessive kicking. 
pancakes & waffles
@looking from afar if you also mean energy drained from KICKING Colombia's players too... yeah.
It was also the ref's fault that Thiago got himself uneccessarily banned for the match, in which he was sorely missed, arguably more than Neymar?
WendellMurray
"A lot of Brazilians had doubted their team all along."
I agree with that "lot". 
Although the score for the Germans was exceptionally high, I find the lopsided victory hardly surprising. In fact, I was surprised that Brazil reached the semi-finals or even the quarter-finals, as I expected the Colombian team to beat Brazil as decisively as Germany did, if not by such a score. All power to the Germans in any case, who have played exceptionally well. I do not see that either the Netherlands nor Argentina has a particularly good chance of defeating the Germans, even though both teams are strong this year.
Lions_Led_By_Donkeys
This at best average Brazilian team got away with murder throughout the entire tournament - eg they committed the most fauls with getting any sanctions. I actually wonder if they would have qualified for this World Cup had they had to compete for it - ie automatic qualification because they were the host country really helped.

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