Brazil boss Luiz Felipe Scolari said
he had experienced the worst day
of his life after seeing his side lose
7-1 at home to Germany in the
World Cup semifinal at Estadio
Mineirao on Tuesday.
Scolari had claimed prior to the
match that his team could cope
without the injured Neymar and
suspended skipper Thiago Silva,
but Brazil soon capitulated against
Joachim Low's men and found itself
5-0 down after half an hour.
"It's the worst day of my life,"
Scolari said after the game. "We
ask for forgiveness for the result
and we thank the fans for their
support even during this defeat."
And he added: "I am responsible
for the catastrophic result. I made
the choices. I am responsible.
After the first goal went in we
became disorganized and after that
it was one goal after another.
There was no time to change
anything.
"This is a loss of catastrophic
proportions, it's the worst loss in
our history, but we have to learn
how to deal with it."
Scolari says Neymar's absence had
nothing to do with the defeat and
admitted that Germany had just
been better than his side.
"Neymar is one of the team, but he
is a striker and he wouldn't have
helped us defend those moves,"
the Brazil boss said. "There's no
reason to think it would have been
different with Neymar.
"Let's not try to find an excuse
with Neymar. What happened is
that Germany imposed themselves
in a few moments which defined
the match. Germany made use of
those moments and it's nothing to
do with Neymar."
The 65-year-old now hopes his
players can pick themselves up in
time for Saturday's match for third
and fourth place against either
Argentina or Netherlands.
"I will have to wait until Saturday
to see how they will react," he
said. "Before that we will look at
this match again to see what went
wrong and how we can improve,
Life goes on."
