Catastrophic defeat but life goes on: Scolari

BELO HORIZONTE: What was left of Brazil in the aftermath of the mayhem at Estadio Mineiro was Luis Felipe Scolari trying to put up a brave front. It was futile to face the world that had just witnessed the last rites and burial of everything that the Brazilians considered sacrosanct in football.
Pride built over the years by the nebulous skills of Pele, Garrincha, Didi, Vava, Tostao, Zico, Socrates, Romario, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho, and a reputation nurtured since 1958, all lay scattered on the green grass of the Esatadio Mineiro.What happened against Germany on Wednesday, July 8, 2014, will be referred to hence as the 'Massacre at Mineiro'.
"It was a terrible defeat but it was the first defeat in two years. Yes it came in the semifinal of a World Cup against a fantastic German team. But we still have a game to play on Saturday and we can still finish third in this tournament," said the Brazilian coach who was given the charge of resurrecting the Selecao's fortunes two years ago.
Since when did Brazil start aiming at the third place? Well it was a rather tame effort by the "professor" to deflect anger, shame, disgust, disbelief and a mixture of extreme emotions of his fellow countrymen who live football. Still he could not resist the use of words such as "catastrophic" and "historical loss". They erupted out of him like Freudian slips. "I have made the choices and I don't regret making them."
In another brave sweep, Scolari banished excuses that Brazil missed Neymar. "He's a striker and if he played, he would have had a different role. I don't think his presence would have had any influence on the outcome today."
Trying to be a little more practical, Scolari said, "Today whatever the Germans did was correct and whatever we did went wrong. It was not possible to change anything after conceding four goals in a span of six minutes."
He mentioned the effort that Bernard and Paulinho made at the start of the second session, "but both of them hit the goalkeeper". "We panicked after the first goal and the Germans rattled us psychologically," he said.
As for the lessons learnt, Scolari said, "We have to sit down and look at the details and analyse them. This is the worst defeat of the national team and my life too. But life will go on and we will have to learn to live with this.