Yeah, that's how millions of Brazilians must have felt after what was quite possibly their biggest World Cup game loss they have ever experienced. Add the fact that this has happened in their own country, and that their government have received shitloads of criticism after spending billions of dollars to organize the whole damn thing, and you'll sooner or later realize that Brazil is not really the safest place on earth to be right now.
All day long, Brazilians from all over the world were preparing themselves for what was going to be their most important game against most likely the toughest opponent in the whole tournament. Not ignoring the fact that Germany barely won the game against Algeria, the majority of the Brazilians had good hope and believed that their country could beat Germany and advance to the final of the World Cup. Then this happened.
So what exactly went wrong? Let's start with Big Phil's line-up. He started started with a 4-2-3-1 formation including the likes of Julio Cesar, David Luiz, Marcelo, Dante, Maicon. Then in midfield you had Fernandinho and Luiz Gustavo as the holding midfielders, Oscar as the attacking midfielder. In attack you had Bernard and Hulk on the wings and Fred as the lone central forward. It started with the line-up. Considering the fact that Thiago Silva and Neymar were not available, obviously Scolari was forced to make changes in his line-up, and so he did by replacing Neymar and Silva with Bernard and Dante. Dante who has barely played in this World Cup and Bernard who isn't really good enough for this level of football. He chose these players while he could have taken a much safer approach by making Gustavo the centre back and replacing him with Ramires. And play with Willian who is arguably a better, more disciplined footballer than Bernard.
Another factor was the lack of quality compared to the Germans. Germany has one of the best long passers in Europe in Kroos, regular starter of Real Madrid in Khedira, a player that has been seen as the best playmaker in the world in Özil, quite possibly the best rightback in the world in Lahm, and Müller who is having a terrific World Cup (scored 6 goals in 5 games!), arguably the best goalie in the World Cup so far in Neuer and the list goes on and on. Mean while, looking to Brazil objectively, their best XI includes Hulk who plays in mother Russia, Bernard plays in Crimea...errr Ukraine, Fred is some stadium bathroom attendant who stumbled onto a golden wonka bar, Luis Gustavo who plays for Wolfsburg, Paulinho benched at Tottenham, and Maicon who is like 33..Their only genuine world class player is Neymar and he got unfortunately injured in the Colombia game. Roman Abramovich must be smiling if he saw David Luiz's performance tonight, and the fact that he sold him for more than 50 million euros. Then you got the likes of Kaka, Felipe Melo, Maxwell and Felipe Luis who could have been very useful for this Brazil team, but who were rejected and ignored by Scolari quite a few times.
After analyzing what kind of problems Brazil were already dealing with before the game, let's analyze what actually happened in the game. Brazil started off well in the first 5 minutes of the game, they began to pressure Germany a lot. They did this until Müller scored the first goal, and so it started. Then goal number 2 and 3 came shortly after and the whole accident was escalating. There was no defensive support from Brazil's midfield, the likes of Fernandinho and Gustavo were just watching how their own country got pulvarized so easily. Also no decent man marking either. At the first goal, Müller was left totally free to score, in the other goals the German players were just walking through the Brazil defense like there were no defenders at all.
Right after Germany scored their 5th goal, it was half time. In the second half time Paulinho, Ramires and Willian were brought on, but that didn't help Brazil much. Goal number 6 and 7 came, and 8 was almost there but Özil showed that he is a merciful human being and wasted a big opportunity. Then Oscar saved himself from being lynched and scored the only goal for Brazil.
One explanation for this loss could be that Scolari and Brazil thought that the Confederations cups showed that homefield advantage was huge for them and will make them pull through. All because of that big win against Spain. That's probably why Scolari though that Fred would do well even though it was one of the stupidest decisions in football history. That's why they all sang the anthem and did all that stuff prior to games. They remember how people made such a big deal about how Spain got shell shocked with that stuff, but at the end of the day it was a big, fat lie.
Tears were shad. Tears of joy, but most of them were tears of sadness, disappointment and anger. More than 200 million people were trusting, believing in the 6th World Cup win only to see their dreams being shattered in 1 single night.
After the game Scolari said that he was fully responsible for the loss, and that the day Brazil lost 7-1 to Germany was his worst day of life (FIFA.com) Not only was the line-up pre-game wrong, but the team itself was not a team. There was no team chemistry, no defensive duties being shared. Everyone was just doing what they wanted to do. Marcelo and Maicon were constantly going forward and exposing the flanks, David Luiz was playing like an attacking midfielder. Gustavo and Fernandinho weren't even bothered when Germany was attacking and Fred... Fred was less useful than a used condom.
Can Brazil move on? Yes. But in order to become the powerful football nation they used to be, it is inevitable that they need to bring in fresh young people and make drastic changes. The current squad is literally mix of inexperienced talents like Neymar, Oscar and Bernard and brutally overrated, average footballers like Fernandinho, Hulk and Luiz Gustavo. Time will heal wounds, but will it also heal scars?
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