Brazilians react to stunning defeat at World Cup

Police control crowds reacting to Brazil's loss 1-7 to Germany at the 2014 World Cup. Photo Jorge Rodriguez Vargas — Police control crowds reacting to Brazil’s loss 1-7 to Germany at the 2014 World Cup. Photo Jorge Rodriguez Vargas

Rio de Janeiro–The expectations were very high. The entire host nation was united, expecting to take just another step towards its sixth World Cup. Even without their biggest star, Neymar, Brazilians were extremely excited about the semifinal match against Germany on July 8–until the Germans scored early.

What nobody could have ever imagined happened at Mineirão Stadium: Brazil suffered its worst defeat in World Cup history, losing to the impressive Germans by a final 1-7 score.

The fans at the stadium couldn’t fathom what was going on. The Germans, like a truck, smashed the Brazilian defense. Brazil could do nothing to stop them. By first half’s end, the score was 5-nill.

“I can’t believe what I am watching here. I just can’t believe,” said Marcio Araujo, a fan who went to the game.

All over the country, people mourned. Brazil hosted the World Cup for the first time in 64 years, and expected nothing less than to reach the finals.

“Now all we can do is watch the Argentinians going to play at Maracanã and us being left out of it,” said Marcelo Metre, a young Brazilian fan who traveled all the way from South Africa to watch the World Cup. “This sucks.”

It’s still hard for Brazilians to understand what happened. Even Luiz Felipe Scolari, Brazil’s coach, had difficulty explaining it.

“It was a blind five minutes that simply took the game away from us. I have never seen anything like that.”

It will take a while for the Brazilian people to heal from this loss, maybe decades. Especially for those kids who cried during the games, and for those who got used to seeing Brazilian soccer shine with its classic brand of “joga bonito,” or “beautiful game.”