There must have been a moment when even those watching in their white Mannschaft shirts inside Estadio Mineirao wished it would end. Germans are only human, after all.
Admittedly, the 11 on the pitch seemed to be transcending that state at times, but those looking on, the mortals – they must have felt it like the rest of us.
It was simply too much. Too brutal. Too excruciating. Too painful to watch.
The home crowd did not go entirely quiet, but they stopped singing. There was a rumble, of chatter, of conversation, people trying to make sense of what they were seeing.
Six minutes of football that would live in the memory as long as the famous Maracanazo. From Brazil 0 Germany 1, to Brazil 0 Germany 5. In six minutes. Six minutes. It needed repeating, digesting.
There has, quite literally, never been a World Cup semi-final like this, the greatest winning scoreline in tournament history. That it was a victory inflicted on the mighty Brazil on home soil makes it truly astonishing.
It is hard to imagine any match so humbling, so ruinous, so opposite to what was expected.
Brazil as a nation was ready for a battle, they knew it would be hard without Neymar and captain Thiago Silva. It would require all of their resolve to win. Yet they were pumped to bursting with hope, national pride and passionate, searing, bleeding emotion.
The Maracana was in sight. The seventh step. Might the will of the people pull them through?
And then there it was, the terrible reality. All that desire, all that desperation and yearning.
Useless, the lot of it. If it was just about wanting to win a World Cup, schmucks could do it. Sadly, for Brazil, the schmucks departed this contest long ago. What remains is the best of the best. A German team that is young no longer, that is peaking, that may be the strongest group here. And they took Brazil apart.No, scratch that. Terms of triumph for bland Saturday afternoons have no place here. This was different. This was uncharted territory. An evisceration. An attenuation.
Brazil had its insides torn out, was weakened, losing life and momentum with each heavy blow. The goals went in, and would not stop. And the crowd sat, helpless, like Alex in A Clockwork Orange, eyes pinned open, unable to turn away. It was unspeakably savage, beyond the realm of familiar audience experience.
(c) Daily Mail
