By NAN Contributor
News Americas, BRASILIA, Brazil, Weds. July 9, 2014: As Brazilian fans locally tried to grapple with the mega walloping of their team by the Germans Tuesday afternoon at the semi-finals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte; many turned their anger on their President, Dilma Rousseff, whose government spent a record $11 plus billion to host the Cup.
Now the Maracaña stadium that Dilma built for the finale will not see its own national team play there.
Just like some did at the World Cup opening ceremony, many in the stadium yesterday, angered at the 5-nil beating Germany had handed out in only the first half of the match started to chant: “Ei, Dilma, vai tomar no cu,“ which translates to: “Hey, Dilma, go f*** yourself in the a**!.”
The chants, which occurred at around the 40th minute of the blow-out match, lasted for about three minutes as Brazil’s national team playing minus its captain, Thago Silva and its main star, Neymar, went on to be handed the worst defeat -7-1 – since its 1950 World Cup loss to Uruguay and as some fans felt, the worst beating by Germany of any country since 1939.
This came even as the World Cup scoring record, once held by Brazil’s Ronaldo was also taken over by Germany’s Miroslav Klose, with 16 career goals.
Rousseff, who has seen protests by those who say the billions could have been put to better use building up schools and hospitals nationally and helping the poor in neighborhoods like Cidade de Deus, took to Twitter after the team’s loss and felt it necessary to post: “I am immensely sorry for all of us.”
Meanwhile, while many cried openly or simply slithered off in stunned silence, others took to the street to voice their anger.
Police fired tear gas to break up hundreds of protesters outside Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium and several buses were set on fire and an electronics store was looted in Sao Paulo. Others publicly burned the flag of Brazil in the street and effigies of star Neymar Jr., whose injury in the quarter finals watch against Colombia resulted in a cracked vertebrae that put him out of the Cup.
The reaction came as Brazilian player David Luiz, who could barely get his words out amidst tears in a post-game interview said: “There are people who suffer so much here in Brazil. I only wanted to see my people smile, to see Brazilians happy because of soccer at least. We couldn’t do it. Everyone knows how important it was. We apologize to the Brazilian people worldwide and Brazil.”
Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who was roundly criticized for the team’s catastrophic performance, also apologized for Brazil’s loss and took full responsibility for when asked by a reporter at a post news conference.
“Who is responsible when the team plays? Who is invited as the coach? Who is the coach? Who is responsible for capping the team? I am. So the catastrophic result can be shared with the whole group, and my players will tell you that … but the choice, who decided the tactical line-up, the way to play, I did, so the results and the person responsible is me,” he said.
