Brazil Fans Crushed By 7-1 Loss to Germany Adriana Gomez Licon - The Associated Press
go to original July 9, 2014

A Brazil soccer fan cries as Germany scores against her team at a semifinal World Cup match as she watches the game on a live telecast in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Tuesday, July 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Bruno Magalhaes)

RIO DE JANEIRO — The tears started flowing before half time, and by the end of a 7-1 shellacking in the World Cup semifinal, millions across Brazil were in dazed, damp-eyed disbelief.

The national team wasn't just defeated by a powerful German team. It was routed in front of the entire world, humiliated at its own party. Young and old, Brazilians shared in the anguish of what many called a national calamity — the worst loss in their team's storied World Cup history.

A rain of seven goals by the powerful German team devastated the Brazilian soccer faithful across this continent-sized, soccer-mad country that for years has harbored hopes of winning its sixth Cup title right on its own turf.

"I couldn't believe my eyes! It was like the game was on replay," said Valeria Mazure, a 67-year-old retired teacher drinking beer in Rio, and sporting Brazil's colors in a green tunic and yellow scarf. "I'm feeling disappointed, sad, but more than anything I'm feeling embarrassed. It was embarrassing to watch."

So much so, some of the fans who were in the stadium where the massacre played out in excruciating fashion simply exited at halftime, some tearing up there tickets and giving the thumbs down to TV cameras.

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