The despair over Brazil’s 1-7 defeat at the hands of Germany in the 2014 FIFA World Cup semi-final early Wednesday morning is not limited to that country. It also shocked and disappointed the millions of Brazil fans in Kerala, who had somehow learned to believe that Brazil is just another name for soccer.
Wednesday morning saw Brazil fans removing the huge hoardings they had put up at many places to wish their favourite team victory before the start of the FIFA World Cup finals with heads hanging in despair and accompanied by persistent taunting from the fans of Argentina, who for some strange reason considered Brazil and their fans as enemy No 1.
“I want to remove these boards now itself,” says Basheer Ahmed, a bank employee in Kottakkal, Malappuram, where the FIFA World Cup was a family matter for understandable reasons. “The more I see images of Brazil team a burning feeling is produced inside me. I never expected this result. I never expected it to be this bad,” he says with tears in his voice.
The Brazil disaster — as one fan put it — disappointed not just the youth and regular soccer-crazy of Kerala. Those who fell into despair included even communist hardliners like State CPI secretary Pannyan Raveendran and CPI(M)’s State committee member MM lawrence. “Defeats are normal in matches. But this should not have happened,” said Raveendran.
On Tuesday night, most Brazil fans in Kerala had considered the reports that the State Government was examining the possibilities of offering Ayurvedic cure for the spinal injury of super striker Neymar Jr as a sign of an impending victory against Germany in the semi-final at Estadio Mineirao, Belo Horizonte.
But the pulverisation of Brazil in the totally one-sided match was so shocking to their fans in Kerala that on Wednesday none of them seemed to be interested in the suggestion of Ayurveda experts that Neymar’s injury could be cured if he underwent Ayurvedic treatment for three weeks in his country and for a month in the State.
“All names connected to Brazil are irrelevant now. I don’t want to hear any of those names, particularly that of Scolari, the coach. His generosity in owning up the responsibility for the collapse is no remedy for the pain millions are going through right now,” fumed Sekharan of Kolothumpadam, Thrissur where former India soccer star IM Vijayan had begun his career.
In the football villages of the Malabar region, particularly Malappuram and Kozhikode districts where soccer is the second religion of the people just like in Brazil, the scenes were even more expressive of the despair. Nobody wanted to talk about the World Cup anymore and nobody seemed interested in the Netherlands-Argentina semi-final to be played early Thursday morning.
The temporary sheds Brazil fans had erected in places like Mampad, Kottakkal, Areacode, etc were deserted, the specially installed big-screen lED TV sets already removed, the Brazilian yellow-green trappings at the gates were pulled down. Remnants of the fire-crackers burst by Argentina fans to taunt the Brazil fans lie scattered in front of most of these sheds.
“We had spent over Rs 8,00,000 to build the shed, buy the TV set and for other things to watch World Cup matches together believing that the cup belonged to Brazil,” said labeed of Mampad. “But that was just a blind belief. When Brazil fail, it affects not just Brazilians but even people in faraway continents. As far as we are concerned, the 2014 World Cup is over,” he added.