Brazil 1 Germany 7: A shocking exit for the World Cup host nation

At 5-0, folks began to make their way to the exits. Twenty-nine minutes had passed. Read it again. TWENTY-NINE. But people had seen enough. It wasn't a majority, obviously, not even a significant plurality, but enough that you would notice. They filed away silently, looking away from the pitch, a yellow goo oozing toward the stairwells.

Halftime was predictable: boos and catcalls rained down mercilessly and echoed in the cavernous Mineirao. If before kickoff the ground's acoustics had amplified the Brazilians' sound, now -- after five goals -- it was a roar.

At 6-0, the wrath seemed focused on one man. Fred, the mustachioed centre-forward who for the past weeks had flailed in carrying the torch passed on by the legendary Selecao strikers of yesteryear, from Ronaldo and Romario all the way back to Pele and Arthur Friedenreich. In truth, the insults, expletives and bile vomited in his direction had begun at the start of the second half, perhaps when the realization hit he was still on the pitch. They rose to a crescendo after Andre Schurrle made it six, and Fred laconically made way for Willian.

At 7-0, it was simple. They rose as one and offered up an ovation. Schurrle's goal -- his second -- was pretty, but it wasn't Diego Maradona-against-England-in-1986 pretty. Were they applauding him? The Germans? Were they being sarcastic? Was it all of the above? Or was this merely the last possible reaction they could think of, having exhausted all others?

By the time Oscar fixed the final score at 7-1, there had been scuffles in the stands (at least five distinct ones -- all among Brazil fans -- visible from the press tribune). There had also been a period of "oles" at every German touch. Fans do this when they're well ahead, either to celebrate their own side's supremacy or to mock their opponent's futility ("See? They finally strung two passes together."). This was different.

It was perhaps as unprecedented as a nation with five stars above its crest losing 7-1 at home in a World Cup semifinal.

There is no script for this. It's virgin territory for everyone involved. You don't know how to react. Luiz Felipe Scolari, looking as if he had sailed with Charles Marlow into the heart of darkness (only instead of finding Kurtz, he found Kroos), insisted afterward that life goes on.

It does. It just won't be the same.

"We tried to do what we could, and we did what we thought was best," he said. "But in six or seven minutes, they scored three or four goals [four in six minutes actually, but you wouldn't blame the shell-shocked Scolari for getting it wrong], and they did it in an extraordinary manner. It was one after the other. We tried [from the bench] to talk to them, to get them to stop for a second, but we just could not."

In a situation such as this, you wonder if it's even worthwhile talking about tactics. Schemes and formations, after all, often mutate after one goal, usually after two and, well, when you're 5-0 down inside the time it takes to watch a rerun of "Glee," there really is no such thing anymore.

Scolari was devoid of his best player, Neymar, and his captain and defensive stalwart, Thiago Silva, but to his credit, he didn't use the absences as an excuse. "It would have made no difference," he said. "What was Neymar going to do?"

Scolari tried to channel emotions and turn a negative into a neutral or maybe even a positive. David Luiz and Julio Cesar held up the missing talisman's No. 10 jersey, and even the mascots ("player escorts," as FIFA like to call them) sang their little lungs out during a raucous rendition of the Brazilian anthem.

Scolari had gone for the jugular, with the same 4-2-3-1 formation he's played throughout the tournament, which many thought he'd abandon against the Germans. Little Bernard, all 5-foot-5 of him, the hometown hero, slotted into the wing, with Oscar shifting inside while Fernandinho and the returning Luiz Gustavo were ready to do battle. There were moments in the first few minutes when it looked like the old-style 4-2-4 Vicente Feola might have used in 1958.

But that lasted until the first German goal in the 11th minute, when David Luiz somehow lost Thomas Muller in the penalty box and gifted him the easiest of side-foot finishes from a few yards out.

"Everything was organized, everything was calm until the goal was scored," Scolari said. "Then everything became disorganized, everything was panicked."

For his part, Joachim Low offered up the same formation that beat France -- with Philipp Lahm tucked in at right-back -- but with one crucial tweak. When he saw Scolari's lineup, he shifted Sami Khedira from his role alongside Bastian Schweinsteiger in front of the back four to one further forward next to Kroos. A 4-2-3-1 became 4-1-4-1 or, if you like your lingo, from triangle up to triangle down.

Kroos-Khedira became a two-man gang of outlaws plundering the Brazilian passing lanes and scything their way past the feeble yellow barriers. They prompted the next four goals, including the one that allowed Miroslav Klose to become the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history by passing Ronaldo's mark of 15.

"They suddenly were not so well organized, they were hitting long balls, and we took advantage," Low said. "We hit them with fast counterattacks, and we knew that it would cause them problems."

The game was over at halftime, except for the record books that would record Schurrle's brace and Oscar's strike. (Don't call it a "consolation goal." Don't you dare.)

Afterward, Luiz apologized in a tearful television interview. Oscar was a fountain of tears too, alternately cuddled by Silva, himself bawling, and Schurrle, his club teammate. Julio Cesar said that, in place of this, he would much rather have lost 1-0 while making the mistake that cost his team the game. That way, there would only be one scapegoat.

Instead, there are many.

"I am responsible," Scolari said. "I pick the team, I prepare the team. Though if you ask my players, they will also say they're responsible because we are a team and we share victories and defeats. But for me, when I look at my life as a player, a coach, a teacher ... yes, it is the worst day of my life. I will be remembered as the man who lost 7-1 in Brazil in a World Cup semifinal."