German media yesterday savored the national team’s unprecedented 7-1 semi-final victory over FIFA World Cup hosts Brazil on Tuesday, describing the rout as a miracle and — even though the final is yet to come — its players as immortal.
Top-selling daily Bild devoted six of its eight main pages to the match under the banner headline “Speechless,” summing up the sense of disbelief at the scale of the win.
A picture of jubilant two-goal midfielder Toni Kroos adorned the front page, while a gleeful column read: “Boys, you are immortal.”
Photo: EPA
“Germany will never forget this July 8, 2014... Thanks for this moment of glory. Thanks that we could experience it,” the paper said to the Mannschaft players and coach Joachim Loew.
The paper dedicated a full page to each of the five German goalscorers in their red-and-black strip.
In a country where, largely for historical reasons, outbursts of national pride are rare, Germans did not hesitate to treasure the win.
Photo: Reuters
Despite heavy storms, hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the avenue stretching from the Brandenburg Gate to the golden statue-topped Victory Column in Berlin, while organizers extended the fan zone to 1.3km in anticipation of the massive crowd who roared with excitement as goal after goal banged into the Brazil net.
Fireworks rang out across Berlin after each goal and after the final whistle, cars raced through the city with honking horns and German flags hanging from the windows.
Commentary filled the airwaves, with former players speculating on whether the squad is as good as the revered West Germany World Cup winning teams of 1954 and 1974.
Germany hopes to go on to win their fourth World Cup in Sunday’s final — their last one was in 1990 — a match that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is regularly welcomed into the squad’s dressing room, is expected to attend.
Looking ahead to the final, the online edition of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote: “Off to Rio on a High,” but some commentators tempered the joy with workmanlike reminders that the event that will define the team’s legacy is still to come.
“If you win 7:1 you have done everything right,” former Germany player Olaf Thon told Deutschlandfunk radio, but cautioned not to take anything for granted because “in the end what will count is who wins the final.”
Germany’s performance was such that even Selecao fans were lauding them, with Brazilians in a town near the Mannschaft’s training base in Brazil adopting an “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach and throwing their support behind the European squad.
In contrast to the doom and gloom prevailing across the country, several hundred Brazilians waited for hours in the pouring rain to cheer the Germany players as they disembarked their team bus shortly after midnight and boarded a ferry for the crossing to their quarters in Santo Andre.
Many in the crowd chanted “Alemann, Alemann, Alemann” (Germany, Germany, Germany) amid raucous celebrations as fireworks lit up the night sky and revelers ignored the showers that threatened to dampen the party atmosphere.
“We just like the way Germany play — all the creative goals and all the great passing they do,” said Breno Antunes, one of the scores of police officers keeping watch over the bus and players. “If Brazil’s not in the World Cup anymore, at least there’s one team still in it that play like Brazil.”
“I very much like Germany,” said Jose Amilton, a 32-year-old who was leading the celebrations at the ferry crossing. “They play so well, they pass the ball and they’re so fast. They play like Brazil used to.”
The Germany players have been generally well received by those gathered to watch the crossings and any fears that they would turn on Loew and his men following the humiliating loss proved unfounded as the weary-looking victors were greeted as heroes by an enthusiastic crowd.
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