Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari says Brazil’s "catastrophic" 7-1
defeat to Germany in the World Cup semi-final was "the worst day of my
life."
The hosts' dream of reaching the final on home soil was blown away in
a scarcely believable first half, which shellshocked Brazil finished
5-0 down - all five goals coming in just 19 minutes.
Calamitous
defending, and some superb German attacking play combined to produce a
scoreline which sent shockwaves through Brazil and the rest of the
footballing world.
Thomas Muller got the Germans up and running in
the eleventh minute, but the game was lost in seven astonishing
minutes. Miroslav Klose scored on 23, Toni Kroos added two more on 24
and 26 and Sami Khadira scored the fifth on 29. Andre Schurrle both
scored twice after the break before Oscar pulled one back in the last
minute.
Scolari admitted: "Today was the worse day of my life - but life goes
on. My message for the Brazilian people and fans is that we tried to do
what we could do, our best, versus a great team.
"They finished
off the match in three or four minutes with some fantastic goals. The
atmosphere in the changing room was terrible obviously. But we are going
to continue working hard to keep improving.
"I'm sorry we could not reach our goal. The fans supported us even when it was five, six, or seven down to Germany.
"I
am responsible for this catastrophic result. I made the choices. I was
responsible. We ask for forgiveness. To the people, please excuse us for
this negative mistake.”
Scolari insists the nature of the match and the gulf between the
teams on the night does not mean Brazil are being left behind by other
footballing powers.
"I don't agree that we're behind from a strategic standpoint. This was my third loss. But this was the worst loss," he said.
"Should
we have to reinvent our team after one game? Half this team will play
at WC 2018. At least 13, 14, 15 of them will be in 2018.
"What happened today had little to do with how we had been playing. We lost control... that's not normal but it happens.
"It was one goal after the other. It was like we blanked out. We
tried to talk to them, to organise them. There was nothing we could do.
"A
coach makes choices and has to deal with consequences. I don't have any
regrets for the choices I made. Trying to turn around a 5-0 after the
first half is impossible."
"They (the Germans) negatively
influenced my team. We have to sit down and analyse things. The German
quality wasn't normal. We have to know how to take on this defeat.
"I think they have five or six players with more than 120 caps. They had their best match today. Us? Our worst."
Asked directly if he will resign, Scolari said: "Don't forget there's a match on Saturday, the third place play-off."
Scolari also rejected the suggestion that Neymar's serious injury,
and the emotion created by his absence, had played a key part in the
defeat.
"No, no, no. Let's not try to find an excuse in Neymar or
the emotions of the anthem," he said. “I don't think it would have been
different with Neymar. He's a striker.
"Germany probably could
have done that with Neymar in the side, also. He wouldn't have known how
to defend those moves for the second, third, fourth and fifth goals."
David
Luiz wore the captain’s armband in the absence of the suspended Thiago
Silva and was heartbroken as he spoke to reporters after the final
whistle.Apologies to everybody, apologies to all the Brazilian people," said a tearful Luiz.
"I just wanted to see my people smile. We all know how important it
was for me to see all of Brazil be happy, at least because of
football. They were better than us. They prepared better. They played
better.
"It's a very sad day but it's also a day from which to learn."
Goalkeeper
Julio Cesar was just as stunned and admitted it would take some time to
recover, but he also congratulated Germany for a magnificent
performance.
"Honestly, it's hard to explain," Cesar told reporters. "You can't explain the inexplicable.
"It
was beautiful up to here. I thank the Brazilian people and the fans are
to be congratulated for all the support they gave us.
"The
players...are going to apologise but they (Germany) were strong, and we
have to acknowledge that. After the first goal we just had a blackout,
nobody expected it.
"We will go home, hug our families. And thank the fans. We got close but we couldn't, that's it."
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