Many-time champions Brazil (Brasil) was brushed aside 7-1 by Germany in the semi finals of the World Cup 2014 in Brasil on Tuesday evening. No, you did not read that wrong. It was as one-sided a match I have ever seen Brazil being on the losing side of.
Both teams came out in an extremely quick, unsustainable pace. It became clear the strategy of each team was to surprise the other and score a quick goal as one of my bredren said. Once Germany got that quick goal in the 11th minute, we expected them to continue that pace for a few more minutes but expected Brazil to slow the pace down and play their style of football (soccer) immediately. We were surprised that Brazil allowed Germany to continue to dictate that quick pace and wearing down their, already suspect, defense.
After Germany scored again in the 23rd minute, the shell-shocked reaction of the Brazilian players gave me a flash-back of the Miami Heat players’ reaction during games 3 and 4 versus the San Antonio Spurs. You may remember the Spurs going on to win the series 4-1 after a 1-1 tie in San Antonio.
So, it was no surprise that things continued exactly the same way in the game and Germany scored at will. It was like watching a Manning Cup high school soccer game in Jamaica when a great team plays a weak team. I was perplexed that Brazil just couldn’t figure out what was going on. Missing their captain and defender Thiago Silva (serving 1 game suspension due to 2 yellow cards) and scorer Neymar (who was injured after a cheap tackle late by Zuniga in the Colombia-vs-Brazil quarter-finals), many of us still expected the weakened Brazilian team to represent in front of the home crowd. I had Brazil winning 2-1. So did my bredren. However, we were not ready for what transpired. Even another bredren who, as he puts it, “has always been a fan of the German soccer team since childhood in Jamaica and will always root for the German team” and predicted Germany would lift the cup in Brazil, said he didn’t expect a 7-1 score.
Germany scored at will. First goal was in the 11th minute. Next goals were 23rd, 24th, 26th and 29th minute. It was 5-0 in the 29th minute in the semi-finals of a World Cup game… versus Brazil… and Brazil was the 0… and it was a match in Brazil. I don’t think any fan of the German team in Germany or elsewhere expected anything like this. I am at a loss for words… yes, kinda like the way the Heat played games 3-5 as I said earlier.
Adding even more insult to injury, Klose’s goal in the 23rd minute meant he takes over as the leading goal scorer in World Cup history with 16 from 23 matches, eclipsing Brazilian legend Ronaldo’s 15 from 19.
In the end it was 7-1, with Oscar scoring Brazil’s lone goal in the 90th minute and many jokes coming.
A Colombian sistren, who was still smarting over the loss against Brazil in the quarters said, “Well, I didn’t want [Brazil] to even score a goal. They deserve what they got. Maybe they could score 6 more goals in extra time.”
An American bredren, whose jokes have been referred to as pun-ishment, had quite a few things to say:
“How do you say Blitzkrieg in Portuguese?”
“Not even Klose, but that’s just Howedes”
“Germany was just healthier and Neuer”
I could hear the voice of Charles Barkley in my head saying something of the sort, “The Brazilians have history but this group of players were tur-ble. Germany was great.”
Thank God it’s just a game… but this will sting Brazilians everywhere and their fans for a long time. I do hope people are disappointed but not take out their frustration on the Brazilian or German players, their management, coaches, their communities, or the cities.
Please say your piece…
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