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RIO DE JANEIRO. — Brazilians cried, cursed their president and covered their faces in shame after their beloved football team’s humiliating 7-1 thrashing by Germany in the World Cup soccer semi-finals on Tuesday. After the fifth goal, well before half-time, hundreds of people left their expensive seats at the stadium in the south-eastern city of Belo Horizonte.

A section of the crowd chanted sexually expletive obscenities against the players and President Dilma Rousseff, who during the cup had mostly enjoyed a reprieve from protests over the record US$11 billion spent to host the tournament.

The tears began well before the final whistle, with the third German goal in the first half causing children and adults to start balling in the stadium and in public screenings across the continent-sized nation.

As people streamed out, police reinforced security inside and around the stadium.
Others around the country shouted at their televisions and abandoned public screenings.

As the goals kept going in, a downpour only added to the already gloomy mood of thousands of fans in Brazil’s canary-yellow jersey at the official “Fan Fest” on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach. Two dozen fans scuffled, forcing police to intervene.

Brazilians were already concerned about the team’s chances after their superstar forward Neymar broke a vertebrae in the quarter-final victory over Colombia.

But they never thought it would be this bad.
“This is a terrible match and Brazil without Neymar are terrible. I hate this match. It’s embarrassing to lose like this,” said Beth Araujo (24), a biology student.

“The only good thing is I think it will affect President Dilma in the election. But all our politicians are even worse than the team,” she said.
Rousseff said she was “very sad” and “sorry” about the result. — AFP.