The 2014 FIFA world cup is over. It now belongs to history. Like some curious incidents that occurred during this prestigious soccer event, including Brazil being thrashed 7-1 by the strong Germans.
The Brazilian coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, after that unforgettable defeat, aptly described the Seleção’s performance as a “disaster in six minutes”. How can a nation that produced such great soccer stars like Pelé, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaká, Romário, Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo, Zico, Sócrates and so forth, succumb in such a humiliating way?
Although Scolari hoped that he would lift his players’ morale for the third-place play-off game at the Estadio Nacional in Brasilia, the ending result was a 3-0 defeat for the disappointed Dutch. I share Louis van Gaal’s opinion that The Netherlands’ elimination in the semi-final was “unfair”. The Dutch’s huge disappointment was somehow minutely compensated by their marvellous win against the Brazilian national team.
When commenting on how he felt during that six-minute nightmare, Scolari said: “If I could explain what happened in those six minutes I would answer but I do not know. The crash was also the coaching staff, the fans, it was overall, no one understood, and the team from Germany, which is good, took the opportunity. I cannot explain, I will not justify. An error occurred and this error was fatal. We can lose by one or two but we lost in a way that we had never done before in the history of Brazilian football. But the tournament was not all bad.
“We had a bad defeat”.
The terrible shock that Germany’s record-breaking 7-1 overwhelming defeat over Brazil inflicted on the football world should not be sidelined. According to former Brazil midfielder Juninho Paulista, this humiliating defeat “will be difficult to recover. I don’t think some players will be back to wear the Brazilian shirt. It is wrong now to criticize the players. On the field, Germany taught us how to play football. We have to learn from that”. In the opinion of former Manchester United and England defender, Rio Ferdinand, “the Brazilian players might never recover from this. Some might not be able to come back from this”. Finally, Columbia and Monaco striker, Radamel Falcao, twitted: “A result that leaves us all surprised.
“Difficult, this moment, for the players and the people of Brazil. The important thing now (is) that peace reigns”.
After such extremely bitter and devastating experiences peace is the only safety haven one attains to achieve. And, it is precisely that indispensable peace which helps the defeated come to their senses and start re-assessing what went wrong in their hugely disappointed performance. It is that life-giving peace which leads them not only to identify the failures but also those potentially growing edges that would eventually turn these sad situations into successes in due time.
Scolari hinted at this when he said: “We (coaching staff) have a deal with the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) until the game on Saturday and after that, probably, we will have a conversation to sort some things out... After the World Cup we will submit a report to the board of the CBF where you will see the good and the bad that we did and then it depends on the direction.”
Brazil’s rout at the hands of the German at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday 8 July has taught me to accept that failure is part and parcel of life. All of us fail. We fail in all sorts of ways.
However, it is not failure that is the problem but how to handle it.
If we ignore it failure becomes spiritually cancerous. But if we face it humbly and courageously it certainly builds us up.
An 11th century Greek abbot named St Dorotheus, who founded a monastery dedicated to the Holy Trinity, wrote: “It does not matter how many virtues a man may have, even if they are beyond number and limit. If he has turned from the path of self-accusation, he will never find peace.” If you and I really want to live in peace with ourselves, why not fruitfully engage ourselves in a daily examination of our consciences? Which is what the Seleção is doing at the moment.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap