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.
World blog
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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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.
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.
Brazil the only one with 5 World Cup titles. respect
Brazil the only one with 5 World Cup titles. respect
Brazil the only one with 5 World Cup titles. respect
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.
Brazil the only one with 5 World Cup titles. respect
Brazil the only one with 5 World Cup titles. respect
Brazil the only one with 5 World Cup titles. respect
Brazil the only one with 5 World Cup titles. respect