Brazil came into the World Cup expecting nothing less than victory but tactical naivety, a lack of
emotional preparation and an inability to overcome the loss of two leading players cost them the
chance of winning a sixth title.
Marcelo shouts for help after Brazil's Neymar was injured during the quarter-final football match between Brazil
and Colombia at the Castelao Stadium in Fortaleza during the 2014 Fifa World Cup. (AFP Photo)
Having gone 39 years without a competitive home defeat, they suffered two in five days, the 7-1
semi-final loss by Germany their heaviest ever at the World Cup.
They followed up with a feeble 3-0 defeat by the Netherlands in the third-place playoff on
Saturday.
"After the 7-1 today's game was very difficult psychologically," captain Thiago Silva said after the
Dutch game.
"But we need to look at what we did wrong so we don't make the same mistakes again.
Especially when we lose a goal it's like the world has ended and that's not the way it should be.
Football changes every minute and you can't fall apart when you lose goals. That's normal, it's
natural in football."
The Dutch defeat was bad but it was the humiliation by Germany that will forever scar the
Brazilian players and their memories of this World Cup, the first to be played in the country since
1950.
Read: Brazil ends with nightmarish 0-3 loss to Netherlands
The defence was all at sea, unable to mark, cover or tackle, and a midfield that had looked
ponderous throughout the tournament was over-run, with Fernandinho and Luiz Gustavo
outnumbered and outsmarted.
Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari aimed to attack but left his midfield vulnerable and with Neymar out
injured, there was no one to create.
"We forgot how to play as a team," former World Cup winner Tostao said in his newspaper
column.
"For Felipao (Scolari) and the majority of coaches exchanging passes in midfield is fancy, nicey
nice, unproductive. Brazilian football is all about running, lunging, and balls into the air. Because
of the contempt we have for midfield we have no great players in that sector."
The result shocked the footballing world.
Brazil were pre-tournament favourites and not just as they were hosts and because no European
team have ever won the World Cup in the Americas.
They arrived having won their previous nine matches, with a settled squad and an experienced
manager who led them to the World Cup in 2002.
Just one year ago, they won the Confederations Cup in style, winning all five games and handing
world and European champions Spain a 3-0 drubbing in the final.
Brazil, though, never really convinced from the moment they went behind to an own goal after 11
minutes of the opening match against Croatia. They won the game 3-1, but needed a
suspiciously soft penalty decision to give them the lead.
Read: Germany decimate hosts Brazil 7-1 in semi-final
Defensively Vulnerable
They could not score against a resolute Mexico side in their second game and although they
trounced Cameroon 4-1 in the final group match they looked defensively vulnerable against one
of the tournament's weakest sides.
They only qualified for the quarter-finals by beating Chile on penalties after a thrillingly close
game. Even the 2-1 win over Colombia in the quarter-finals was fraught.
The decisive factor came in that game with the loss through injury and suspension of Neymar
and Thiago Silva. Silva got a needless yellow card and that kept him out the semi-final and
Neymar's injury, a fractured vertebra, shattered the team's confidence and highlighted their
emotional fragility.
Several players had cried uncontrollably after they beat Chile on penalties and they looked visibly
shaky at facing the Germans without their biggest asset.
Captain in Thiago Silva's absence, an emotional David Luiz even held aloft Neymar's jersey
before the national anthems.
In contrast, the Germans looked cool and collected and when asked why they did not celebrate
the 7-1 mauling more expansively, they replied that there was a time and place to show
emotions.
Their performance also highlighted Brazil's lack of top-quality players. Unlike the Germans, the
Dutch and to a lesser extent Argentina, several of the Brazilian players who started the match
were not regular starters for top European sides.
Goalkeeper Julio Cesar plays in Canada, Paulinho struggled last season at Tottenham Hotspur,
Bernard and Hulk play in eastern Europe, Luiz Gustavo is at Wolfsburg and centre forward Fred
is at Fluminense.
If there is a silver lining it is that unlike four years ago, when defeat by the Netherlands prompted
a purge of the old guard, Brazil still have a young team and this experience, while bitter, could
serve them well in the future.
Neymar is still only 22, midfielders Oscar and Willian are 23 and 25, respectively, and first-choice
players Hulk, Luiz Gustavo and Marcelo will still only be 30 or 31 by the time the next World Cup
comes around.
Central defensive pairing David Luiz, 27 and Thiago Silva, 30, will have a chance to deepen their
understanding by playing together at Paris St Germain starting next season.
Brazil remains the only nation to win the World Cup five times and the team can bounce back.
But the rebuilding work must start now.
