Annihilation

When I said 'Go Brazil', it wasn't 'Go out Brazil' much less 'Go nuts Brazil'.  7-1, against Brazil, the World Cup hosts, who haven't lost a competitive match at home in four decades, in the semi-finals.  The holographic projection of the scoreline in the BBC studio reflected their Final Score videprinter where one team scoring seven (or more) has the number spelt out as a word to avoid the chance it was an error).  At the end, it was almost a shame that Germany missed a clean sheet with Brazil scoring the least consoling of consolations ever, though on the balance of play it was fair as Brazil emerged in the second half with a tad more discipline and Germany's defence, barring the outstanding Manuel Neuer, decided to take the rest of the night off.  Had Mesut Özil not continued his late-season Arsenal form and scored in front of a gaping goal, it would have been 8-0 (for Brazil immediately went down the other end and scored after the miss), equalling the Teutonic destruction of Saudi Arabia in 2002 - the Germans reached the final then as well.
In the end, this was the reckoning for a deeply average side that has progressed so far because of the brilliance of a few individuals and a fanatical home support.  It could have been worse had Germany not taken their foot off the pedal (and Brazilian throats) in the second half, saving themselves for the final instead of ramming home a more comprehensive historic victory because this will not be repeated again against Brazil and certainly not in the semi-final (the heaviest semi-final trouncing in World Cup history).  The comeuppance was slightly deserved as over all the hoo-haa about Neymar's injury, the more important player turned out to be the suspended captain Thiago Silva (his replacement Dante proving once again that he is not a top player).  And surpassing all of that was the absence of a minute's silence for the two people who died last week in the same city as where this match took place through slipshod World Cup infrastructure work that should have been completed months ago.
I hope the Dutch beat Argentina all the more now as it will provide two grudge matches - the loathing between Brazil and Argentina (who ideally would face-off in a third-place match) scarcely surpassed by that between the Netherlands and Germany.  The referees won't want such a scenario but it really would cap an astounding festival of football.