Germans throw Brazil into football's dark age

Colombia’s Juan Zuniga merely cracked a vertebra which will soon recover. Germany broke the backbone and pride of a nation from which there is no recovery. And they did it in such a clinical ease that the 2 million Brazilians in and around Bela Horizonte, headed by the hapless 11 in the middle, learnt a new and much more painful meaning of carnage, shock, shame and helplessness.

23, 24, 26 and 29 — six minutes to sudden death and then to undiluted mockery, that’s not the way even the Germans would have envisaged a victory over the hosts reeling under talent cut due to an injury and a yellow card. But it took them only 29 minutes to raise the starkest questions ever around Scolari’s so-called magic boys who resembled players of every game other than football.

What to talk of the complete vanishing trick of Brazilian defence? The forward line was even more miserable. Fred managed to touch the ball perhaps only as many times as Mueller scored his goals! Hulk came down as incredibly lame in the box and Neymar’s replacement can only be called Faint Bernard.

To add insult to injury, as Ronaldo looked on from the stands, Germany’s Miroslav Klose marked his new record over the Brazilian legend’s long standing 15 World Cup goals against his home team and on his home Cup, scoring his 16th in style that gave Julio Cesar the unenvied tag of a bumbling buffoon.

Brazil was at Bela Horizonte what the Indian cricket team was at Jo’burg in the 2003 World Cup Final, Roger Federer was against Djoker in the US Open semifinal of 2010 and the Indian hockey team was at the London Olympics and ever after! As for the beautiful tribute to Neymar, he couldn’t play so his team didn’t too! He cried in helplessness, pain and injury. His team did too! He lies immobilised. So do his mates. Call it the Belo Horizonte moment — taking over from the Maracanazos which Brazil has mourned since 1950. Anything of bigger shock value in store? Perhaps, the prospect of an all-European Final in South American territory!

Brazil showed up as a nation without defence or offence or, for that matter, willpower, gumption, strength or speed and, thus, was ripped apart in the opening minutes, never to recover. Seeing the professional German blows which kept coming in such quick succession, there was reason to believe that even the otherwise unemotional Germans had started feeling bad for the Brazilians.

By the 67th minute, when the sixth goal came, it turned into such a routine matter that neither the Germans were celebrating wildly, nor the Brazilians mourning deeply. The crowd in the stands had, by then, long taken to booing their very own — much after tears had dried up and shock had given way to anger, disgust and futility of being.

Ninety four years of carefully built Brazilian reputation was sent into cardiac arrest and by the 79th minute and the seventh goal in Germany’s kitty, even embarrassment refused to grow any further on Brazilian prodding. Finally, the story of defending champions Spain’s haplessness looked much healthier than Brazil’s unexplained tale of mute surrender and total lack of sanity in the backroom.

Thiago Silva, sitting in the stands after an unnecessary tackle of Colombian goalie, looked irritatingly nonplussed even as Scolari tried hard to take quick lessons in ostrich-hiding in the dugout. One wonders if anyone in the Brazilian dressing room had anything to say to each other. And, how on earth would Scolari have gathered the rationale to exhort his wards back into action would be a question that will only stare as hard as the shame of wanton loss will stare an entire nation for a long, long time to come.

In the midst of the all round carnage that Brazil were first subjected to and then seemingly started inviting it on to themselves like in some masochism drill, it would be pertinent to remember that one man who the entire Brazil despises – the champion coach of defence, Dunga. He was to Brazil what spinners were to West Indies in the time of Marshal and Holding. But it’s time to see Dunga’s point of view now. So huge were the chinks in samba magic in this semi final that the absence of defender Silva emerged as a much bigger loss than that of striker Neymar for whom the entire nation was mourning and chanting.

By the time, Oscar finally fired Brazil’s lone goal into the German net in the 90th minute, no one could find any reason to celebrate, not in the middle, not in the stands and definitely not for the coach who had promises to keep but could only look mutely at the most under celebrated goal in the history of Brazilian aggrandizement.

As Brazil goes into State mourning now, and its president gets back to battling the woes she had brushed under the football carpet hoping for a relief in World Cup victory, there’s another harsh reality that will be blazing as the Brazilian 11 are sent into essential hiding and then correctional recuperation – that they are perhaps the worst ever generation of Brazilian football players to have been groomed from those soccer factories that the samba nation has so long gloated on. Such was their brittleness that they made even the infamous 1920’s 2-6 defeat to Uruguay look a better prospect.

Come to think of it, the fallout of this horror show could, perhaps, be even more devastating for Brazil which will now reel under the pulls and pressures of going backwards and becoming a defence-oriented nation on compulsions that haven’t ever go down well with their brand of enjoyment football from the forward line.

Brazil was at Bela Horizonte what the Indian cricket team was at Joburg in the 2003 World Cup Final; Roger Federer was against Djoker in the US Open of 2009 and the Indian hockey team was at the London Olympics and ever after!

Last but not least, a beautiful tribute to Neymar. He couldn’t play, so, his team didn’t too! He cried in helplessness, pain and injury. His team did too! He lies immobilized. So do his mates. Call it the Belo Horizonte moment – taking over from Maracanazos. Anything of bigger shock value in store? Perhaps, the prospect of an all-European Final in South American territory! 

Source: The Pioneer, July 20, 2014