Final Scoreline for Match 61 (SEMI - FINAL #1):
BRAZIL - 1
(Oscar 90')
GERMANY - 7
(Muller 11', Klose 23', Kroos 24', 26', Khedira 29', Schurrle 69', 79')
This, ladies and gentlemen, is called complete and utter demolishing. In a display of brutal soccer which preyed on the host team's non-existent defense, the boys from Deutsche Land struck 4 goals in a span of 6 minutes!! Yes, you read that right.
No, this was no ordinary practice match or a friendly, but the Semi-Final of World Cup 2014.
Indeed, if someone told you before the match started that the scoreline would read 5-0 Germany after the first 30 minutes of play itself, you might tell him to go and get his brains checked. But that's how things happened.
Muller started the rout in the 11th minute by heading the ball in through a neat pass, and the floodgates opened from the 23rd minute onwards. Miroslav Klose got his record-making goal then and went past Ronaldo (Brazil) as the highest goal-scorer in World Cup history. And, as if Germany had suddenly found Brazil's defense with it's pants down, became really brutal. Tear after tear rolled down many a Brazil fans' cheeks, while Germany just blasted them in one after the other - Tony Kroos sent 2 goals in 2 minutes, and Sammy Khedira came in and helped himself to a goal 3 minutes later. It's as if the German boys were lining up, yelling "me! me!", and thumping them in relentlessly one after the other.
The half-time score read 5-0 Germany, and that's when I went to sleep. Scolari's men wouldn't have wanted to step back into the field for the second half, and could you blame them for that? Completely humiliated, dejected and morose, Brazil's players had lost all of their fighting spirit. As if more punishment was in store, Andre Schurrle came in as a substitute for Miroslav Klose in the 58th minute, and exactly 11 minutes later, converted a superb pass from skipper Lahm to score a goal for himself. And when he penetrated Brazil's defense yet again to score his 2nd goal, Germany's 7th, in the 79th minute, the stadium might as well have gone empty. By the time Oscar got one back for Brazil in the dying seconds of play, not many hands were raised to clap for him or applaud his effort.
Germany 7, Brazil 1. Brazil's heaviest defeat in any World Cup match since 1934, and it put an end to their undefeated streak at home since 1975. One of the most humiliating and sad losses a top soccer team had to endure in their entire soccer history.
Come to think of it, even Neymar and Thiago Silva's presence might not have helped much, either.
Germany look every bit like a set of hungry wolves, ready to pounce. It certainly seems like the 2014 World Cup is theirs for the taking, and now they should be really, really strong favorites to lift it on July 12th.