Brazilians cried, cursed their president and covered their faces in shame after their beloved team’s humiliating 7-1 thrashing by Germany in an unprecedented FIFA World Cup semi-final on Tuesday.
After the fifth goal hit the Brazil net well before halftime, hundreds of people left their expensive seats at the Estadio Mineirao in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
A section of the crowd chanted obscenities against the players and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who during the tournament had mostly enjoyed a reprieve from protests over the record US$11 billion the government spent to host the tournament.
Photo: EPA
The tears began to flow long before the final whistle, with the third Germany goal in the first half sending children and adults alike in the stadium and in public screenings across the continent-sized nation bawling.
As people streamed out of the venue, police reinforced security inside and around the stadium, but no incidents of violence were reported there.
Other supporters around the country shouted at their TV and abandoned public screenings as the Selecao suffered the biggest defeat of their 100-year history.
“Neymar must be vomiting at home watching this disaster. The horror,” said Marina Genova, 54, watching at a popular bar district in Sao Paulo, referring to Brazil’s injured striker.
Amid the deluge of goals, a downpour only added to the already gloomy mood of thousands of fans in canary-yellow jerseys at the FIFA Fan Fest on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach and two dozen supporters scuffled, forcing police to intervene.
In Sao Paulo, several buses were torched in a parking lot, but police could not confirm whether the attack was linked to the defeat.
Brazilians were already concerned about the team’s chances after Neymar broke a vertebra in the quarter-final victory over Colombia, but they never thought it would be this bad.
“This is a terrible match and Brazil without Neymar are terrible. I hate this match. It’s embarrassing to lose like this,” biology student Beth Araujo, 24, said. “The only good thing is I think it will affect President Dilma in the election, but all our politicians are even worse than the team.”
Rousseff said she was “very sad” and “sorry” about the result.
Brazil had hoped to exorcise the ghost of their 1950 defeat to Uruguay in the other World Cup that they hosted, a national trauma dubbed the “Maracanazo” because it was played in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana.
This time, TV commentators were talking of the “Mineirazo,” with the sports Web site globoesporte.com calling the defeat the “Shame of Shames.”
Yet 23-year-old photography student Jessica Santos took the massacre in stride, saying: “The cup is back in Brazil for the first time in 64 years so of course we’ll cheer until the end. If Brazil wins, we party, if Brazil loses, we still party. It would have been worse to lose to Argentina in the final.”
Others turned to social media jokes to ease the pain, posting photos of Rio’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue covering its face in shame, or replaced by a figure of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The insults against Rousseff, who is seeking re-election in October, showed that tensions remain following massive demonstrations that rocked the country last year when Brazilians demanded better healthcare and education.
Some among the public have voiced concerns that the nation’s failure to win the World Cup could spark more protests and clashes.
“It’s a disaster. It will be chaos. People will break everything. They’re going to be furious,” said Karina Marques, a 17-year-old soccer player who watched the game at a street screening in Rio attended by 30,000 people.
At a squatter camp of homes outside Brasilia, people turned off their televisions in disgust before the end.
In tears, Maria Jose Costa Almeida, 35, asked: “Why spend so much on stadiums, bring the cup to Brazil, to win nothing?”
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