Brazil’s brilliantly acerbic football writers may not have enjoyed dissecting and making sense of the hell in Belo Horizonte but they certainly did it with a certain panache.
Sporting tragedy often fosters as much imagination and creativity as triumph, and the nation’s dailies were littered with eye-catching front pages and comment pieces.
Tabloid Meia Hora carried a dark front page reading “Nao Vai Ter Capa” (There Won’t Be A Cover), a play on words on anti-tournament protestors who chant “Nao Vai Ter Copa” (There won’t be a cup).
Meanwhile, Lance invited readers to send in their own words and pictures to help create their own image of desperation on the front.
O Globo – Rio de Janeiro’s most read newspaper – marked each player 0 out of 10 while delivering a stinging one-word criticism. Highlights including: Julio Cesar – “buried”, David Luiz – “impetuous” and Hulk – “confused”.
This was far beyond a defeat, a result no one inside or outside Brazil could have imagined but,while the scoreline was outrageous, the manner of defeat was not.
Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side have spluttered their way through the tournament, leaning heavily on the exuberance of Neymar and the brilliance of Thiago Silva.
Without those two, the rest of the team – if it can be called a team – capitulated. There is also significance in the fact it was Germany who inflicted such a monumental result upon them.
Germany have long been the blueprint for how national teams should be run, and while Joachim Low’s side may lack ‘stars’, as a collective they were unstoppable, playing an aggressive, technically-brilliant, exciting brand of football, it was – as the chant goes – just like watching Brazil.
Brazil will always produce fantastic players, but the issue post-2002 has been moulding them into a productive and consistent unit.
Scolari took a safe approach, with one or two artists to offset his band of artisans, but ultimately, for all his tactical faults (and there were many), the players at his disposal were not good enough.
Individual talent will only get you so far, and it has been Brazil’s get-out clause for too long.
With the exception of 1998, they haven’t produced a genuinely outstanding team since 1982.
Forget 2002, it was a desperately poor World Cup and, outside of Ronaldo’s performance, it’s difficult to remember that side with any great affinity.
But it was a successful team, and that’s all Brazil wanted when they re-hired Scolari: a World Cup victory.
However, in the pursuit of that they have shorn themselves of any defining characteristics – bar Neymar.
They are merely a group of players in a gold and green shirt.
Germany endured a rude awakening at Euro 2000, forcing them to revamp and reinvigorate their own football structure, enhancing their own culture beyond dwelling on and referencing past glories and methods.
Brazil, despite reaching the semi-finals, are in a similar position.
They have the tools, with the abundance of talent constantly being produced, while the seven goals they conceded should give them plenty of desire to try and cultivate a new and improved identity.
