If you saw the game on television, no, you didn't imagine it. If you didn't watch it but heard about it, the rumors are true.
Brazil really did concede five goals in the first half hour of its World Cup semifinal against Germany. It really did get dumped out of the tournament 7-1. The dream really did end in little more than a heartbeat because of a devastating burst of brilliant attacking and utterly inept defending to form the most extraordinary outcome of all.
The World Cup is magical, the sort of thing that everyone should sample at least once in their lifetime. But not like this. Unless you are a diehard Germany fan you were lucky not to be here at the Estadio Mineirao as perhaps the proudest soccer nation of all was humiliated and had its heart shredded.
Everywhere you looked there were tears. They rolled down the faces of small bespectacled boys and anguished old ladies and through the face paint of the hopeful masses who dreamed – no, expected – so, so much more.
Losing is one thing. Losing at home is another. Brazil could have, just about, handled either of those things. But this was another level of suffering. This was torture. This was being smashed out of sight in your home World Cup and being powerless to stop it.
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