World Cup drubbing will haunt Brazil for years
It is not difficult to believe that Brazil has lost in the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup. The team had played below expectations throughout the tournament and showed little indication of the powerhouse it once was and its supporters believed it had again become. But it is impossible to digest the humiliating rout it suffered. So one-sided was the match that it did not seem for a moment like Germany was faced with a former world champion. Instead, the Germans looked to be playing around with rookies and scoring when they felt the urge or got bored with dribbling the ball. In pumping seven goals against the home team and conceding just one (and even that now seems to be a favour done to a host), the Germans not just brought millions of dreams in Brazil and outside who backed the men in yellow crashing down, but have denied Brazilians an opportunity to gloss over the financial crisis they are facing, with a hoped-for win in the World Cup. The country's football team has just made things difficult for its Government which has to cope with the people's anger and frustration doubly magnified by the defeat. At one point, the misery on the face of the Brazilian players was so touching that one felt the need for a human rights organisation to intervene and end the suffering. While it is for experts to dissect how and why things went so horribly wrong for the team — that its star striker Neymar Jr could not play or that the team was relatively inexperienced can hardly be cited as excuses for the drubbing — there is no running away from the reality that the team has to be rebuild from scratch. It remains to be seen whether the coach, luiz Felipe Scolari, will head that revamp or he will make way for another person. After all, a lot had been riding on Scolari's magnetic touch. It did not show much in the tournament and was completely missing in the semi-final.
The last time that Brazil was similarly stunned into silence and reduced to abject tears was in 1950 when it was beaten by Uruguay in the final. The Samba-team was then the hot favourite, as it was until now, and newspapers had before the match begun planned their headlines proclaiming Brazil's win. Interestingly, Brazil had advanced to the final riding on victories as magnificent in scale as the present defeat is shattering. It had trounced Sweden 7-1 and Spain 6-1, with the former score returning to haunt it in a twist of circumstances.
The 1950 debacle led to a change in the colour and design of the dress that players of the national football team had donned in their defeat. It was believed that those colours did not quite reflect the combative yet cheerful spirit of Brazil. Moreover, the colour combination was considered inauspicious. The authorities organised a nationwide contest to select the best entry for a revamped jersey for the football team. That's how the now iconic yellow made its arrival. Sartorial changes will not work this time around.