These guys consoled each other the only way they know how.Last night, the biggest game of the biggest sporting tournament on the planet was played in Brazil. Contested between the hosts and Germany in Belo Horizonte, the World Cup semi-final will inevitably cast a bigger shadow than anything that preceded it and the final itself, and it did not go as coach Luiz Felipe Scolari – or anyone – had planned. Had Brazil won, this morning we'd probably be lauding a team that had built up an unstoppable momentum on their way to a sixth World Cup victory. Instead, this latest incarnation of the Seleção ended up battered by their opponents, mocked by their fans and eviscerated by their journalists.
Annons
The German performance was one of brilliant cruelty; four goals in six hallucinogenic first-half minutes saw them double the tally England had managed in their entire tournament. But while England's presence at this World Cup now seems a distant and ridiculous memory, what happened to the Brazilians will be etched into the psyche of the nation for decades. Before last night, this was a nation still haunted by a World Cup final lost to Uruguay on home turf in 1950. Now, a new generation of Brazilians have their own ghosts to exorcise.Aside from the absent Thiago SIlva and Neymar, the only Brazilian players to come out of the game with even a slither of credit were the stranded goalkeeper, Julio Cesar, the scorer Oscar and the centre-half Dante. The latter deserves a sympathy pass only because his partner was so totally inept. After this summer's £50 million move to Paris St German, David Luiz is the most expensive defender of all time, and last night he cost his national side dear, putting in a performance that will deservedly be held up for decades as a disasterclass of decapitated anti-defence.Anyway, as the Brazilian squad and their management wept and weighed up the relative merits of different hideouts, we asked photographer Mattias Maxx to go out onto the streets of Rio to capture the mood of the city. There'd been reports of violence earlier in the day, of gunfire, robbery and brawling at the official FIFA fan park on Copacabana beach, but in the end the social discontent that has rumbled away throughout this tournament did not rear its head.
Annons
This morning, many Brazilians will wake up still feeling angry at FIFA for robbing their country blind. But last night, as the planet waited for the country to catch fire, the locals were mostly just sad and drunk in the rain. Welcome to our world, Brazil; so long, jogo bonito.Click through for more photographs.
A fan tries to evade the downpour outside a fast food shop
A Brazil fan tries to flee the scene outside the Copacabana Palace hotel
A Brazil fan dances in the rain
Reports indicate that the police had a surprisingly quiet night
Pissed off fans piss against a World Cup hoarding
Brazil fans staring into space
Brazil fans console each other
Smug German fans lord it in Rio
There were a lot of empty bottles as Germans toasted their success and Brazilians drowned their sorrows
Some Germans thrusting their victory in the face of a Brazilian, who didn't seem too impressed
Argentines were happy, too. They celebrated the German's success, or rather, Brazil's failure, with pizza
This guy was pretty confused as to how his heroes failed so badly
Workers clearing rubbish off Copacabana beach
Brazilian left-back Marcelo in an "All or Nothing" adidas advert
A Brazilian fan stranded in the rain
_Guns were _reportedly_ fired as a gang apparently carried out a "mass robbery" on a bar at a fanpark_
