Lessons of a footballing Armageddon
Brazil needs new ideas, on and off the pitch
THE only previous time that Brazil hosted the World Cup, in 1950, it famously lost the final 2-1 to Uruguay, after shipping two goals in 13 minutes late in the second half. So deflated were Brazilians that Nelson Rodrigues, a playwright and journalist, described the occasion as a “national catastrophe…our Hiroshima”.
If that is the benchmark, then the 7-1 semi-final thrashing on July 8th at the hands of Germany in Belo Horizonte’s Mineirão stadium was Brazil’s Armageddon. It was not just the scale of defeat—the worst since 1920. It was also the manner in which Germany’s fast and technically superior players cut through the home defence, as easily as a machete through cassava. To rub salt in a gaping wound, it is Argentina—Brazil’s arch-rivals—who will face Germany in the final on July 13th.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "Lessons of a footballing Armageddon"
From the July 12th 2014 edition
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