World Cup 2014: For Brazil, it’s all over but here are some of the (darker) faces that you didn’t see on TV

While the world witnessed Brazil’s worst and most humiliating defeat in a World Cup game, at home no less, various photos of dejected fans showed us a glimpse of Brazil’s fans that the world clearly didn’t see during the televised games (see here and here). Below are the (darker) faces of sadness and despair after Brazil’s shocking 7-1 defeat at the hands of Germany.

Although a 7-1 thrashing may have been shocking, the possibility shouldn’t have been. If you followed and analyzed the first four games you probably had some idea that if Neymar didn’t push the ball up the field with that determination of his, Brazil had problems scoring goals.

Before the games, not being a serious fan of futebol, I had heard so many people talking about the players Hulk and Fred. But was it just me or did neither of them show up for the games? They would soon join Daniel Alves, Neymar’s teammate on Spain’s Barcelona team, on the end of the bench.

In retrospect, one must really wonder if the teams that Brazil beat, particularly Chile and Colombia, would have given the Germans more of a challenge. Even the Americans, not generally known for having  great soccer teams, only lost to the Germans 1-0.

It had to be on everyone’s mind when the Brazilians couldn’t score against Mexico and needed to win on penalties against Chile. In reality, they were grave signs of proportions of which no one really wanted to acknowledge.

And when their only true star was sidelined due to a brutal injury, it was a blow that proved to be too much. But one has to wonder, even had Neymar played, considering the lackluster performance of the others, would it have really even mattered?

Yes, I had fear of Germany. I had read the reports of how and why the Germans could beat Brazil.

But I never imagined it would be such a blowout.

Last Thursday, one of my friends said to me that this year’s Brazilian team was really a bunch of kids. None of them really had much experience of such a pressure-filled tournament. When the disaster finally ended, people asked why weren’t players like Robinho, Ronaldinho and Kaká. Yes, they’re all in their 30s now but they were clearly missed yesterday.

Another interesting comment I saw online yesterday was something along the lines of: “That’s what Brazil gets for throwing people out of their homes before the Cup.”  See here and here, for example. Or how about the baianas were treated in their own country?

As the protests against social inequality and the World Cup itself continued, one must really ask now if all the money the Brazilians spent on this Cup was really worth it.

I also hope that the international community realizes that Brazil is not the “racial democracy” where everyone is treated equally. Neither in regards to the World Cup (against its own players or foreign players), nor in everyday life.

Of course, this is not a thing of simply picking on Brazil. Every country around the world has issues it must deal with; Brazil is simply one of them. And regardless of whether the Brazilian team would have won or not, these problems still must be dealt with.

Which is perhaps the reason some critics (Brazilian and non-Brazilian) were hoping the Brazilians would lose the Cup, for their own good. Futebol is one of those forms of entertainment that takes people away from this reality and the power structure knows it.

So it’s all over for the Brazilians. Life goes on. After all, it’s just a game! In reality, the country has many more serious things to deal with. Some of which involve people who look like those in the previous photos. As such we will continue to point these things out here at Black Women of Brazil. Hope to see you come back for some of those reports!