No one had expected it – not even me, sitting half way
across the world, in India, when the game began – when it was 1:30 AM, July 9,
India time – when Luiz Felipe Scolari’s boys began to take over the Germans – a
team with as good prospects as Brazil had – but that was before 1:30 AM – and
that was it – by 1:50 AM, it was written all over – the Team Brazil was
effectively and mercilessly slain – its journey to this FIFA World Cup edition
was over – it was slashed, it was chopped – and its pieces were thrown to add
to the humiliation that kept on exacerbating the misery as the match
progressed.
Brazilians are sad. They are hurt. And they are losing
their cool. And nothing illogical about it!
Brazilians are sobbing. Brazilians are weeping. Brazilians
are crying. They are resorting to violence to express their anger. Someone
tweeted a Brazilian newspaper’s front page (Estado de Minas) that was almost
blank, as if protesting this shocking defeat – a loss that was not even a World
Cup loss going by the benchmarks of the World Cup and of Brazil. They
are shocked. They can’t believe it.
And it is not just in Brazil! Brazil is the most loved Football
team across the globe and Football, the Beautiful Game, is the most loved and
most sporting game across the boundaries.
And the people, the fans of the Team Brazil, the Football
lovers, the Soccer fans, are hurt, even over 9000 miles away from Brazil.
Some reports say a girl in Nepal
committed suicide as she could not accept the defeat.
I come from a Cricket crazy country. Though I am no more a
Cricket fan, I do not love Football either. Yes, but I am a World Cup
enthusiast, a responsive and sincere one. I am sad if not angry. I am not sad
that Brazil lost and Germany won. It’s
good that the better, in fact the much better side (with no possible comparison
with the Brazilian side of the first semi-final of the World Cup 2014) won.
I am sad because Brazil lost it this way. A 7-1 loss
is unprecedented in the World Cup history for a team that has won the Crown the
maximum times, 5 out of 19.
I am sad because Brazil never looked and played like
a World Cup team in the match. They were never in the game and it was with a
clinical precision. It was like they were playing to concede goals.
It is unacceptable that a five-time champion performs so
miserably because it was playing without two of its key players. If that be the
case, then Brazilians footballers have betrayed the Football fans and the fans
of the Brazilian Football team.
I am sad not because Brazil lost. I am sad because
Football lost in the first semi-final of the World Cup.