The World Cup never ceases to come up with surprises. In a match that was billed to go either way with some soccer pundits actually giving Brazil an edge over their European rivals, Germany surprised everyone, themselves included when they walloped the Samba Kings by seven goals to one despite the massive home advantage enjoyed by their opponents.
When they went into the semi-final clash, Brazil were missing the services of captain and inspirational defender, Thiago Silva as well as star striker Neymar. Silva was serving a one match ban for the accumulation of yellow cards and Neymar, who has been ruled out of the rest of the FIFA World Cup finals, suffered a fractured vertebrae after being fouled by Colombian defender, Juan Zuniga. Germany, on the other hand, announced during pre-match conferences that their camp was injury free.
The match started at a fast pace and was evenly balanced until Thomas Muller drew first blood after 11 minutes before the floodgates opened in the 23rd minute, Miroslav Klose doubling their advantage to become the World Cup’s all-time leading goalscorer with 16 goals. Germany were not done with the Samba Kings yet as Toni Kroos bagged two more goals before Sami Khedira got in on the act to make it 5-0 before the half-time break. Substitute Andre Schurrle added two more after the break before Oscar bagged a consolation goal for Brazil on the stroke of regulation time. Germany will now cast their focus on preparing for the World Cup final on Sunday where they meet the winner of Wednesday’s clash between the Netherlands and Argentina.
In post match interviews, the Brazilians have apologized to their supporters for the way they played and for the result of the match. Stand in captain, David Luiz tearfully told the Brazilian people that the Germans won because they played, prepared and were generally better than them on the day. He added that it was a day from which they ought to learn. Echoing his sentiments, goalkeeper, Julio Ceasar, thanked the fans for their support and went on to say that they needed the acknowledge that Germany were strong. He added that, after the first goal, his team collapsed immediately as they had not expected it.
Also speaking to the media after the match, Luiz Felipe Scolari accepted full responsibility for Brazil’s performance and called it the worst day of his life. The Brazilian coach thanked the supporters for their support even when his team was seven goals down and admitted that he was responsible for his team’s ‘catastrophic result’ since he had made the choices. He begged forgiveness for the ‘negative mistake’ which had caused his team not to reach their goal.
